


The Angel and the Pilot

by Eterya



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Partially Anachronistic Order, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2018-07-19 02:17:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 41,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7340602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eterya/pseuds/Eterya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Song-Hana, better known to the world as 'D.Va', joined the reformed Overwatch with nary a second thought. There she met a beautiful and caring angel.</p><p>Angela 'Mercy' Ziegler rejoined Overwatch only after a lot of hesitation and concessions. There she met a loud but passionate young pilot.</p><p>One night Angela runs into a distraught Hana wandering the base alone, and things just go from there. The story of these two and their growing relationship (in partially anachronistic order), Inspired by 4chan/u/'s Overwatch threads.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Night Terrors

“ _Hana, dear, are you sure about this? Your games are one thing, but out there, those are real monsters, and you will be in real danger and-”_

“ _I know, mom. But it's kind of too late to back out now. And besides, if I'm able to make a difference out there, it's the right thing to do, isn't it?”_

_Is it? Or is it really just another game?_

“ _Three years' reigning Starcraft e-sports champion Hana Song, better known by her handle 'D.Va' has joined MEKA's new mech pilot program and will be taking part in the fights against the recurring Omnic attacks that continue to threaten our coasts. It is expected...”_

“ _...to make landfall in about 40 minutes. Everybody gear up and get to your mechs.”_

_Glhf_

“ _Mommy! Mommy, where are you?!” Six-year-old Hana is standing amidst the rubble and smoke, crying, but she can't find her parents anywhere. “Daddy! Daaddyyy!”_

“ _Hana, where are you? We're here!” Her mom's voice is coming from that direction. Hana starts running, but after just a few steps the ground trembles and she falls, scraping her knees and palms._

_Hana's eyes begin to tear up and she starts sobbing, but she gets up and continues running in the direction of her parents, when suddenly a loud roar splits the air, followed by another tremor and she hits the ground once more. “Oow!”_

_A figure extends a hand to D.Va to help her up, her face hidden in shadow due to the bright light behind her. “What I'm saying is, we'd love to have you on our team. The world can always use more heroes.”_

“ _The name's Reinhardt. Here's to good teamwork.” “Fareeha Amari. But aren't you a little young to be fighting in a war?” “I'm Mei, it's nice to meet you, D.Va.”_

“ _The armory's this way, love. You got your first mission as part of Overwatch tomorrow.”_

_40 minutes, my ass. The thing is already here and rampaging through the inner city. Cue boss theme_

“ _D.Va, on your six!” Bang. “Got it, you're clear.”_

“ _I would've been fine. But thx anyways. You better watch your own back, Psythe.”_

“ _Relax, you're talking to a pro.” A massive leg comes down, shattering the ground all around, and then a black maw opens and the dark green mech vanishes._

_Rekt_

“ _Psythe! Psythe, come in! Jae-sung!” “MEKA-7 has gone dark. Everyone, report. What's going on?”_

Hang on, that's not how that happened

 _MEKA-6 and MEKA-5 have gone dark. “MEKA-1, what's your status?”_ This isn't right _MEKA-4 goes dark._ This never happened _MEKA-3 isn't responding. “MEKA-1, come in! D.Va, what the hell is going on?”_

No, no, no, this is all wrong

_MEKA-2 goes dark. “Watch out, D.Va, you've got incoming!”_

This is just a bad dream

“ _Taking fire. Critical systems damaged. Engaging emergency ejection. Ejection systems failing.”_

Come on, wake up

_A massive dark shape filling the entirety of her wind shield._

_MEKA-1 goes dark._

***

With a gasp Hana awakened, panting and her heart racing. As she opened her eyes, she found herself in her bed in 'her' new room, staring at that unfamiliar ceiling. Just a dream.

But of course now she was wide awake nonetheless, and after several minutes of tossing and turning she gave up and got out of bed with a frustrated grumble. So much for sleeping any time soon. Stupid nightmares.

Nothing she could do about that now. Hana decided to just go for a walk through the base for a bit until she got tired again. She left 'her' room and started pretty much randomly wandering through the dimly lit hallways, her bare feet making next to no sound.

What was wrong? Hana should be happy, downright overjoyed. After all she had the unique opportunity to work with Overwatch – however clandestine –, alongside heroes such as Reinhardt, Tracer and Mercy. So why wasn't she happy? Why did she feel out of place, like she didn't belong?

It wasn't that the other members weren't nice. Everyone was friendly to Hana right off the bat, though of course some were more sociable than others, and all of them were experts in their fields, and if there was one thing Hana could respect it was skill. She wasn't intimidated or anything by these real life heroes either, because D.Va was pretty much a hero herself, and besides, _they_ had approached _her_ to get her to join, so that wasn't it either. It was just... everyone else was so different from her and... distant, probably would be a good way to put it.

For starters, everyone was just so much older. The next youngest member was a whole 7 years off, and others were legit double and triple her age. Most of the time they were professional enough to not treat D.Va like a child, but she had seen – and still saw – traces of doubt about such a young member in some of their expressions. And if they could see Hana now, running around sleepless and worked up over some stupid dream, they'd probably see their suspicions very much founded.

Hana had hoped maybe Tracer would be into gaming since she was relatively young too, and she was closest to her in age too, so she'd tried to befriend the woman, but it didn't quite work out. Tracer was super nice and all around a positive and fun person, but still... For one, while Hana knew pretty good English from her gaming career, actually _speaking_ and understanding speech still gave her a bit of trouble, and Tracer's accent coupled with her relatively fast manner of speaking didn't really help matters.

But the bigger problem was, Tracer was a very social person and got along with quite literally everyone at the base, and she loved being around other people. Which was great and all, but Hana ended up being dragged along and awkwardly taking part in whatever gathering Tracer came up with with a bunch of other members, and after she wound up feeling like the fifth wheel one too many times, Hana returned to keeping to herself in the downtime between missions. It was better like that anyways.

Hana hadn't really been paying attention to where she was going, but she noticed she'd ended up in a part of the base that was practically dark safe for the emergency lighting, the science wing, if the signs on the walls were to be believed. Whatever. The whole base was structured in a way that made it very hard to get truly lost, so she'd always be able to find her way back, but right now she was just fine, there were less odds of running into anyone else here.

Her thoughts returned to her dream. Hana hadn't been able to sleep that well the last few days, but this was the first time she could recall any of her dreams with any clarity, even if it had actually been pretty far from the truth: Psythe had been the only casualty during that mission, and D.Va hadn't even been close when it happened, she'd only heard it over the radio. And while her father's cousin had been killed by the kaiju, Hana's family had lived way inland, so they'd never been directly attacked, or even been anywhere close.

But of course none of that took away anything from the sheer terror Hana had felt waking up. And it was stupid! She wasn't a frightened child, she was D.Va, the number 1!

...Then why did she feel so much like a lost little girl right now?

It wasn't a single one thing, but more like all of the things adding together. Suddenly being given the chance to join Overwatch was a great honor, but also a responsibility. And so many new impressions. Seeing this huge secret base, and hearing tales about things Hana had only read about in history books, by people who had been there. Meeting all these real life heroes and going on missions alongside them. Yet outside said missions, in her downtime, Hana kept feeling like a stranger, alone amidst a crowd.

Of course, around others and on missions, D.Va was still as bright and cocky as ever, but outside of combat, sometimes she couldn't help feeling just a little anxious. When she had been with MEKA, D.Va was only up against monstrous Omnics, clearly evil machines, and if she stayed on her guard, risk of injury wasn't all that high, that made it easy to treat just like a game. But now she was fighting all kinds of opposition, including various terrorists and criminals, other humans. And they didn't fight fair either, so injury was much more real this time around, and without Mercy's almost miraculous healing technology, D.Va wouldn't be in any shape to even pilot her mech anymore by now, if not dead.

And apparently all this shit had to condense into fucked-up dreams and ruin Hana's night. But it was just that, pointless dreams, and she really shouldn't let it get to her like this. But she did, and it annoyed her to no end.

With a shout Hana slammed her fist against a wall, and suddenly her tiredness, frustration, loneliness and everything else that had been piling up came crashing down on her and she sunk to her knees, feeling her eyes begin to well up. _This is embarrassing._ Hana tried to force down the tears, but right now everything just felt like _too much_ , and she was still on the verge of breaking down crying. _Come on, get it together!_ She couldn't let anyone else see her like this.

“D.Va, is that you? What are you doing here?”

Oh, god dammit.

Hana took a deep breath and did her best to straighten her face before looking up. Mercy was standing next to her, wearing a labcoat and carrying a clipboard, she probably had been doing some experiments or whatever.

“Is something wrong?” Mercy's worried expression made Hana realize just how pathetic she had to look right now, sitting on the floor in her sleepwear, an oversized t-shirt and some shorts, and about to start crying over some stupid dream. Like a little child. Part of her wanted to just jump up and run away, but that wouldn't do any good. But she didn't really know what to say either.

Mercy had seemed to Hana like a very compassionate person, but she also was a long-time member of Overwatch, and if not leadership per se, very high ranked, and Hana knew the doctor was opposed to violence and war, so there was no way she approved of persons as young as Hana taking part in combat, especially if she got to see scenes like this. And besides, if she told Mercy what was wrong, Hana would look like even more of a child, so there was just no way...

“I can tell something is bothering you, what's the matter?”

“...It's nothing.”

“Don't worry, I'm not going to tell anyone. Medical confidentiality, remember?” Yeah, but even then... “I'm a doctor, that means it's my job to help people. So, Hana, please, if there's anything, anything at all, you can come to me, okay?”

Mercy warmly smiled at her, the white lamp shining from behind her actually creating the imagery of a halo, and after several seconds of silence Hana finally muttered an answer. “...Couldn't sleep, bad dreams.”

With a small sigh the older woman sat on the ground next to Hana, then suddenly leaned towards her and gave her a hug, wrapping both arms around her, and Hana could faintly smell a trace of disinfectant emanating from the medic. _Wait, what?_ She wasn't actually sure what sort of reaction she had expected from Mercy, but most definitely not this.

While Hana still was processing what just happened, Mercy pulled back, but left a hand resting on her leg. “It's alright, _Liebes_. Everything's going to be fine.”

D.Va frowned. “What the hell, doctor? I'm not a small child that needs to be comforted!”

“No you're not.” Mercy didn't seem at all bothered by the sudden outburst. “You're a strong young woman fighting in this just like the rest of us. But everyone needs someone else sometimes.”

Hana tried to protest, but Mercy already continued. “Almost every single member of Overwatch, past and present, ends up having nightmares at some point. It's... not 'natural' per se, but it is to be expected in our line of work, it's the price we pay. But when I look on all the good Overwatch has done, the lives we saved, I can't help but think it's worth it.”

Huh. Interesting. “Mer- I mean, Doctor Ziegler-” “Please, just Angela.” “...Angela, do you have bad dreams too?”

Angela nodded. “Sometimes... all the people I couldn't save keep haunting me. Especially one man...” She trailed off and shook her head “Nevermind, let's not talk about him.”

“But regardless, I think I know how you feel. Almost everyone here had a bit of a hard time starting out. Myself included.”

“Really?” Practically all Hana had seen of Mercy had been completely collected and professional, so she couldn't really picture the doctor looking all lost like Hana felt at all.

“Yes. I may have been a few years older than you, what was it... 27, I think, but even then I was all kinds of nervous and insecure at first. Do you want to hear the story of my first mission?” Angela asked and Hana nodded.

“Sure.” She felt herself slowly winding down a bit, apparently just talking and stuff actually helped. Who would've thought.

“ _Also_.” Angela started “Like I said, I was 27, and Overwatch had recruited me in light of my development of the first generation of _Asklepios_ nanites, to work as a combat medic. I don't even remember most of the details of my first mission, somewhere in the middle east I think, but I remember how much of a mess it was. Before that, I worked as a surgeon, and I had shifts in the ER too, so I was already used to the sight on injured people, and I'd encountered some really awful wounds before, so I thought I could handle some combat injuries. ... _Von wegen._ There were screams and explosions and mayhem all around, and the people I was trying to heal were in the middle of combat and getting shot at. _I_ was getting shot at.”

“It was terrifying.” Angela let out a long breath. “Nothing I ever experienced in the OR could have prepared me for this. I remember just freezing up a few times until some squadmate snapped me out of it, and I think without Reinhardt shielding me I wouldn't have survived even my first day.”

“In the end, we did complete the mission, but just barely. There were a huge number of casualties, including one Overwatch agent, and multiple more suffered permanent damage or disfigurement. The Commander told me without my help the bodycount would have been even higher, but back then that was only a small consolation to me. Immediately after the mission I kept running around tending to the wounded until I literally collapsed from exhaustion, and it was only when I woke up I noticed there was a piece of shrapnel still embedded in my thigh.”

“Oh. Wow.” Suddenly Hana's own worries seemed a lot less significant in comparison. Did everyone here have a story like this?

Angela continued “And even now, when I have a bad night, the events from that day more than any other mission come back to me. All the dead and wounded...” She paused for a few moments, her expression somber. “Ask anyone else, it will be little different. Reinhardt, Torbjörn, Fareeha, Lena- okay, maybe not Lena, but that girl really is the exception.”

“Oh my, I'm getting way off track, aren't I?” Angela stopped herself, but Hana shook her head. “It's fine. And I think I'm actually feeling a little better. So, um, thanks.”

“That's good to hear.” Angela gave her a warm smile. “I guess what I was getting at... If there's anything you need, or maybe just talk or whatever, I'm there for you.”

Did Hana really look like she needed- okay, yes... right now she did. And just maybe she'd actually get back to that offer at some point. “Got it. Thank you, Angela.”

Angela stood up, then held out a hand to pull Hana up, and for the first time she noticed even without her Valkyrie suit the doctor was a fair bit taller than her. Then again, so was almost everyone else. But fun things came in small packages after all.

“I'll be returning to my room, I still have a bunch of data I need to analyze.” Angela said, and after a moment added “If you want, you can come with me, you could sleep on the couch.”

 _Um, what?_ Did Angela really just invite Hana to her room in the middle of the night? ...Okay, it was way immature to interpret it like that, obviously the doctor was just concerned about her and trying to help. But she didn't need concern. D.Va shook her head “I'll be alright. Good night, doc.”

“Oh... Well, if you say so. Good night, Hana.” Did Angela just look disappointed for a moment as she turned to leave? No way, right? Clearly it had just been her imagination, the pale emergency lighting really sucked for the eyes.

...Then again, Angela had been the first person who'd actually tried to make contact with Hana and tried to empathize with her. And on second thought Hana didn't really feel like going back to her room alone, she wouldn't be able to get much sleep anyways. So...

“Hey, Angela, wait! I changed my mind!”

* * *

 

“There you go.” “Thanks.” Angela handed Hana the steaming hot mug with a bit of cream and chocolate flakes floating on top, and after blowing on one side for a moment she carefully took a small sip, letting the taste spread through her mouth. The heat was just barely tolerable, and even if it was not particularly sweet, the hot chocolate had a very intense yet nuanced taste, with a hint of various spices, including cinnamon and vanilla.

“Wow, this tastes awesome!” Hana took another large sip – and promptly burned her tongue a little, muttering a curse in Korean.

“Thank you.” Angela smiled “It's a traditional Swiss recipe I learned from my grandmother.” She booted up her PC, then went into her bedroom, returning with a fluffy blanket she placed onto the couch.

“Like I said, I have a bunch of data to go through, so I'll be busy a while. You should try to get some sleep.” Angela indicated the couch. “You can arrange the pillows however.”

“'Kay.” As Angela sat at the PC, Hana walked over to the couch before dropping onto it. “You know, doc, thanks for a bunch for, well...”

“Oh, that's nothing, _Liebes_. You just seemed like you needed this right now.”

“...Yeah, I guess I did.” Hana stifled a yawn. “But still, thanks.”

She emptied her hot chocolate, and after shuffling around all the pillows on the couch for a bit, wound up just dumping all of them onto the floor except one she used for her head, her small frame easily finding enough space on the couch, then draped the blanket over herself, pulling it up to her chin.

Hana didn't really think she had much hope of falling asleep again, but the couch was very comfy, and she was really tired, and the sound of the rhythmic tapping of Angela's fingers on her keyboard had an almost soothing effect, and before she knew it she was drifting off to sleep.

Hana didn't have any more nightmares that night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is sort of a work in progress until I come up with a really clever NGE reference or something (suggestions are totally appreciated, though).
> 
> The initial dream sequence was way hard to write (thanks to my sis for a few pointers for that), and I'm still not sure it's quite surreal and nightmarish enough, but what can you do? The shifting between 'Hana' and ' ' several times is not me being sloppy, but an intentional literary device (but it doesn't mean she has a split personality). Also tfw when you write about hot chocolate, so you have to look up recipes first, and then you have to go and try out said recipe before you can continue. 
> 
> As usual any feedback and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.


	2. Attraction

“He~ey, doc! D.Va's here!” D.Va loudly announced her presence stepping into the doctor's office, and while Angela didn't even look up at the girl's entrance a brief smile flickered around her lips as she finished the report before turning to her patient.

“There you are, Hana. You took your time, the squad returned over an hour ago.”

“Well, yeah.” Hana shrugged “But I didn't have anything serious, so I thought I'd let everyone else get checked up first and clean MEKA a bit. But then a joint had locked up and that took a while longer to fix, and, yeah...”

“I see.” Out of habit Angela pushed two fingers against the bridge of her nose, even though she'd corrected – and optimized – her eyesight and gotten rid of her glasses years ago. “But you should be putting _your_ health first, not your mech's. Replacing nuts and bolts is easy, human beings are significantly harder.”

“Oh, I'll be fine. It's just some scratches. And besides, I know I can always count on you to be there and patch me up, right?” Hana grinned and Angela just sighed.

“Of course. But I'd prefer you not getting hurt in the first place.” _Because even I am not always enough to save everyone._

Angela's face darkened for a moment, but D.Va missed it and continued. “You should have seen me out there, I was kicking all kinds of ass. Did you watch my stream?” Angela shook her head and Hana frowned. “What? Why not?”

Because watching Hana and the others out there fighting on TV but unable to do anything would just have made Angela needlessly antsy. “Sorry, _Liebes_ , I was just completely swamped with work. But how about we watch the recording some time later this evening when I'm done with all the paperwork? You could give exclusive live commentary.”

Hana broke into a wide smile. “That sounds like a plan. Then-” “But first we're gonna give you a full checkup.” Angela interjected “Sit onto the exam table, please.”

Hana complied and Angela noticed the pilot had a slight limp on her left side, a visible blood stain on her right arm, a thin cut on her chin, and small specks of dirt all over her suit. “Now, where does it hurt?”

“Well, I got this one on my-” “Don't touch it, you'll get it dirty.” Hana's finger paused just short of the cut on her chin. “Right. Then there's this scrape or whatever,” She raised her right arm, displaying the bloodied and torn suit over the outside of her forearm “and I think I twisted my ankle or something.” Hana gingerly moved around her left foot and winced.

“Don't do that.” Angela admonished her “On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do all of these hurt?”

“I dunno... The chin is like a 2 at most, the arm a 3 maybe, and my foot a 4... 5... let's say 4. And together that adds up to a 9, so clearly I'm in massive pain, doctor.” Hana laughed and Angela found herself smiling too.

“Clearly. I'll need you to take off your suit so I can properly examine your injuries.”

“'Kay.” Hana opened the zipper at the back of her suit, pulling it over her shoulders before loosening the cuffs on around her wrists and extricating her arms from the sleeves, then freeing her upper body – and making it apparent she wasn't wearing a bra of any sort, revealing firm, youthful breasts with small pink- Angela felt her cheeks flush a little and quickly looked away. “A-aren't you wearing anything underneath that suit?”

“Of course not.” From the corner of her eye Angela saw Hana pause undressing and cover her chest with her arms, but she still kept her gaze trained on the wall right next to her. “That suit is really _tight_ , you know.” Yeah, Angela hadn't been able to help but notice _that_ before. “Any kind of bra I tried was just too uncomfortable. And besides, it helps get cleaner biometry readings, so MEKA pilots were actually encouraged to go without underwear.” “Right.” That was the reason for sure. And not at all how very attractive-

Angela interrupted that train of thought and looked through the room, searching and finding a hospital gown designed to preserve the patient's – and doctor's – modesty, and pushing it towards Hana while still pointedly looking to the side. “Put this on, then.”

Hana took the gown with a smirk “Come on, doc. I'm sure you've seen plenty of patients naked before.”

“Y-yes, but...” _Komm schon,_ Ziegler, don't get so flustered over this. “It's not really necessary for a check-up, especially since your injuries are limited to the head and extremities.”

“I _might_ have hurt my chest or something too.” Hana said with a grin, then put the gown next to her and stood up to continue undressing, and Angela quickly turned away, picking up the last injury report on her clipboard to... double-check, right, that was it, make sure everything was in order.

Apparently Hana wasn't completely going commando, as she was wearing pink panties that- don't look there. ...Okay, date and time... Patient... Symptoms... It looked like Hana was having a little difficulty getting the suit off her left foot, so the ankle probably was indeed sprained, but now she did it and was practically nude safe for- ...Diagnosis... Treatment... Hang on, had she actually prescribed that dosage? Angela could have sworn she'd given Zarya the 500mg in light of her body mass. ...She'd just have to call her later and check.

“Alright, I'm done.” Angela turned around to see Hana sitting on the exam table, the baggy, oversized gown pretty much completely hiding her – admittedly nice – figure, and she was still smirking.

“What's so funny?”

“Oh, nothing.”

With a small sigh Angela adjusted her imaginary glasses, then knelt down to examine what was probably Hana's worst injury.

“Does that hurt?”

“No... No... Yes, ow.”

“Sorry.”

That, combined with the bruising on the outside of her foot was painting a pretty clear picture, but Angela started palpating the ankle anyways, just to be thorough. Obviously it was a little swollen and slightly warm, but she didn't find any symptoms of a fracture, and also couldn't help but notice how Hana's pale skin was perfectly smooth under her fingers-

Angela quickly stood up and turned around to start rummaging through a cupboard, producing a neatly labeled jar. “You have a grade 1 inversion sprain of your ankle.” She explained as she opened the jar, letting out the familiar smell of ointment. “It's nothing major, but I'll put something on it to help with the healing, to get you back in perfect shape quicker.”

“'Kay, thanks.”

As Angela applied a bit of the ointment and spread it over Hana's ankle, the girl twitched, almost bringing Angela off balance. “Hold still.”

“It's cold.”

“I'll give you a lollipop when we're done, okay?” Hana pouted a little, but she tried her best to keep still, and when Angela took more of the ointment, she spread it between her fingers first to warm it up a bit.

“There you go.” Angela got up, wiping her hands on a towel and putting the jar back. “Like I said, it's nothing serious, you should be fine within a day or two. You can cool the ankle to reduce the swelling, but no more than 20 minutes every hour. And you should keep moving it at least a little, but do try to avoid putting any major strain on it for a bit, especially no running, jumping and so on.”

“Got it.” Hana nodded and Angela put on sterile gloves before moving on to the wound on the pilot's arm.

“That's from a fall, right?”

“Yeah, same one I twisted my ankle too.”

Angela nodded. “I'll have to clean and disinfect the wound, then bandage it.”

“Sounds about right. But can't you just use your magical healing beam to fix me in like 2 seconds?”

“It's not magic.” Angela said as she prepared a bowl and a wet cloth. “The Caduceus staff is a highly sophisticated emergency healing device utilizing state-of-the-art nanobiology to-” “Like I said, magic.”

Angela let out a sigh and lightly shook her head. “It requires a great deal of maintenance and needs a lot of energy and resources, and I also believe in the long run it's still better to leave as much as possible to the body's natural healing, so the Caduceus is not to be wasted on minor injuries.”

“You just could've said 'it's too expensive', you know.”

“...Don't move.” Angela carefully dabbed Hana's injury and then dried it off, taking a closer look at the abrasion. It was about 5 centimeters long and 2 at its widest, but not particularly deep, and otherwise very clean.

“Looking good. ...Well as good as an abrasion can look anyways.” Angela soaked a cotton swab with disinfectant, releasing the familiar sharp smell. It was funny, she mused, how even after some two centuries of medical advances, if you wanted a bunch of bacteria dead, plain old alcohol was still one of the easiest yet most effective ways to go.

“This may sting a little.” It was almost cute how Hana noticeably tensed as she braced herself. Yet just a short moment after the swab touched her arm, she pulled back with a yelp. “Ow!”

“Hang in there.” Angela said in a soothing tone “It's going to be over soon.” After a second's deliberation she placed her left hand on top of Hana's, and when she continued, even though Hana winced and drew in a sharp breath, she managed to hold still.

“Aaand done.” Angela withdrew the swab, dabbing off any residue with a cloth, and Hana visibly relaxed. “Thank you.” The girl sounded almost vulnerable just now, like that one night Angela had met her wandering the science tract after a bad dream.

Then again, a lot of people were unusually sensitive in the doctor's office. As far as Angela could tell it was mostly the adrenaline of whatever injury they'd suffered wearing off, but there also seemed to be a mental aspect, something about actually feeling more helpless in the hands of a doctor and-

“Um, doc? Bandage?” Angela suddenly realized she had been distracted for several seconds – her hand resting on Hana's all the while. She hastily pulled away and turned around to get a bandage, dressing and another antiseptic, then routinely and swiftly covered the wound with a generous amount of the brown iodine ointment, adjusted the dressing and fastened the bandage over it.

“How is it?” Angela asked after she'd finished and Hana experimentally flexed and twisted her arm before nodding. “Everything's fine.”

“That's good. You can change the dressing once a day, and at the latest once a complete scab has formed just leave the wound open. And if the pain gets worse or the wound turns yellow or red around the edges, come to me ASAP.”

“Can I just come to you anyways to get the dressing changed? I'm right-handed, so it's gonna be a real pain to do on my own.”

A valid point. And it wasn't like she'd mind seeing Hana some more at all. “Of course.”

“Now, lastly...” Angela replaced her gloves with a fresh pair. “Can you turn your head that way a little? ...Perfect” She examined Hana's chin, finding that the injury was rather small and not very deep, barely worth being called a cut. “I'll just put a band-aid on this one for a day or two to keep it clean, after that it's going to be fine.”

“Mh.” Hana nodded as Angela cut off a strip of the right size and leaned forward to put it on, and suddenly her face was rather close to Hana's _To properly put on the band-aid,_ but her gaze strayed from the girl's chin up her well-formed cheeks, across the whisker-shaped war paint, before gravitating further up and Angela was looking right into Hana's large, beautiful, brown eyes, almost losing herself in the-

“Doc? Are you okay? You're spacing out again.” Hana's voice snapped Angela out of her reverie and she realized she must have been staring at Hana for way too long, and immediately pulled back, blinking and shaking her head. “Did you not get enough sleep again?”

“Um, yeah. That's probably it. Sorry.” Angela's mind raced for something to say to avoid the awkward silence that threatened to build, before landing on the next best thing. “You'll probably keep a small scar on your chin from this. Unless you want me to use the dermal regenerator to-”

“It's gonna be fine.” D.Va shrugged “A small scar like that doesn't matter, it's not like it'd detract from my beautiful face in the slightest, right?”

“Um, right.” Almost more like the opposite, probably. It would be little more than a thin white line, hardly even noticeable on Hana's pale skin, and do little more than create a rather appealing highlight... Stay on topic, Ziegler. “Do you have any other complaints?”

“Nope, all fine.”

“Good, you're free to go, then.” Angela allowed herself to shift out of doctor mode again. “I'm just gonna finish off this batch of reports and call it a day. Then I'll catch up with you and we can watch the recording of your stream.”

“Looking forward to it.” Hana just kept the gown on, folding her damaged suit under her arm and turned to leave. “Oh right, one more thing.” She paused just inside the door. “You know, Angela, you shouldn't overwork yourself too much. It's not healthy.”

Where did that come come from all of a sudden? Hana sounded genuinely concerned. “Don't worry, it's just a few more sheets and I'm done for today.”

“Alright.” Hana turned around once more, waving over her shoulder. “Be sure to take some breaks every now and then! See you!”

Hana left the room and Angela stood up to close the door behind her, then dropped against it with a long sigh. _Gott_ , she had been _so_ unprofessional just now.

Not only were feelings- no, just attraction, towards patients – she'd easily come to terms with the realization this included only females years ago – never a good thing, but then for it to be someone as young as Hana. This was probably illegal. ...Actually, the rational part of her mind noticed, Hana was 19, so all in her own country, Angela's country and the country they were in right now, she was well over the age of consent and why did she even know that?

Lena would probably tell her she just 'needed to get laid', but Angela had been fine without for years, she just didn't have the time for this, nor the need. This just now had only been the result of too much work and too little sleep.

Although 'too much work and too little sleep' had been more or less her default state in the last few weeks, ever since Winston had initiated the Recall. But there were still people out there that needed help, she could rest when her work was done. But knowing human nature, there probably would always be those in need, the lost and broken, so if her work would never be done, so be it.

Hana had been far from the first person to tell Angela she should slow down and rest some time, but for some reason part of her was inclined to listen to the girl more than anyone else. Well, she already was going to spend the evening watching footage of her mission together with Hana, so that counted, right?

 _Also los._ Get these reports done. Angela picked up her clipboard and sat down at the desk to review the injuries the squad had sustained during today's mission. Thankfully there hadn't been anything major, just the usual small fare, with the biggest injury going to Zarya, who seemed to take her damaged patella much less hard than the fact she wasn't to do any weightlifting for a week. Speaking of which... Angela got out her cellphone and dialed the woman's number.

“ _Privjet_ , Aleksandra, it's Doktor Ziegler. ... _Njet._ You cannot start lifting again. ...Technically bench pressing is allowed. ...That's not why I called you. It's about those painkillers I prescribed you...”

* * *

 

So, at 100 μg/ml the activity was... _Verdammt._ Angela rested her head in her hands with a frustrated sigh. It was pointless. She had finished and filed the injury reports very quickly, so she'd decided to go through a batch of data from her last experiment before looking for Hana, but she just couldn't focus, all the readings seemingly dissolving into meaninglessness.

Her thoughts kept wandering all over the place, but more often than not back to Hana, and so after a few more minutes of blankly staring at the wall of numbers in front of her, Angela gave up, putting the sheets into her clipboard for later review, taking off her coat and leaving the office.

Seeing as work was out of the question for now, Angela could have returned to her room and maybe rest a little before meeting up with Hana, but instead she started wandering the corridors, every few moments looking at her clipboard but not seeing it.

The base felt almost deserted, its expansive rooms only harboring a scant few people. ...There were still so few of them. Back then, Overwatch had comprised hundreds of fighters, now they were reduced to a mere handful of valiants, standing against a situation worse than ever before. So many hadn't answered the call a second time, so many lost to time. Dead, given up, retired, disappeared, fallen from grace...

Lost in thought, Angela didn't particularly pay attention to where her feet were carrying her, only pausing as she noticed the tasty smell and the low sizzling sound telling her she'd wound up in front of the base's communal kitchen and someone was making dinner right now. She'd most likely be able get them to share if she joined in to help a bit or promised to do the dishes, but there really was no need, and she wasn't that hungry either.

Angela was about to leave when she heard a familiar voice over the noise, singing. “ _Fill my heart with song, and let me sing forever more. You are all I long for all I worship and adore._ ”

After a hesitating for just a split second, Angela entered the kitchen. “Hana, are you there?”

“... _In other words, I love you._ Hey, Angela.” Hana was standing in front of the stove, now wearing a loose white and pink t-shirt and pink shorts, and working on a large frying pan, just now she poured a small pile of chopped vegetables off a cutting board into it.

“I didn't knew you could cook.” Angela had not pegged Hana as the type of person to bother with cooking at all – which she had to admit might have been stereotyping based on her rather spotty conception of 'gamers'.

“Well, I'll have you know I'm more than just a pretty face, gaming queen _and_ actress.” Hana's half-ironic half-legitimately smug expression was almost audible.

Angela let out a brief chuckle. “Of course.” As Hana continued, adding small pieces of meat, then thoroughly mixing everything, Angela's gaze started to wander, lingering on Hana's pale, well-shaped thighs, her short shorts leaving little to the imagination, while also being just tight enough to nicely show off the girl's firm behind.

 _Nicht schon wieder._ Angela looked away, trying to distract herself by saying pretty much the first thing that came to mind. “I wish I knew how to cook, I actually never learned.” Well, she was able to pull of noodles, frying meat, scrambled eggs and microwaving things, and during her student years, that had sufficed. “If anyone, it's usually Fareeha who does the cooking here.”

Hana shrugged. “It's really not that hard, think of it as a video game.” This was exactly the kind of thing she'd say. “It's all about the timing.”

“I'm not really good at video games either.” As a child she just had never been interested, and later on there simply wasn't the time.

“Well, then I can teach you. We'd start with something simple.” It was ambiguous, perhaps intentionally so, if Hana was talking about cooking or video games now, however the answer had to be the same either way.

“I'm sorry, I don't think I'm going to have that sort of free time any time soon. But thanks for the offer.”

For a brief moment Hana's face fell into a frown as she turned around, brandishing two steaming plates, but she quickly bounced back. “Ah, that's alright, then. But surely you got time for dinner at least?”

Both plates were generously filled and there was still some left in the pan, so it was clear Hana hadn't just cooked for herself. But Angela got by just fine with her nutrient packs, the compact rations containing everything she needed to live, at a tenth of the work; Hana really shouldn't have gone through the trouble. However just as she was about to open her mouth, Angela's stomach audibly growled, reminding her that, yes, she _should_ eat something.

Angela let out a small sigh. “I suppose now that I'm here, might as well.”

“Great.” Hana beamed at her, then almost shoved Angela into the closest chair. “Sit down, I'll grab something to drink.”

Hana returned with two glasses and some juice – Angela had half been expecting Mountain Dew or some other of these awfully sweet, artificial energy drinks – and they began eating. The food was simple enough in principle, fried rice with a bunch of vegetables, egg and meat in it, but the end result was quite tasty, and Angela was in fact pretty hungry, so she ended up completely cleaning her plate rather quickly and getting seconds not only once, but twice, while Hana leisurely finished her one helping, then just waited for Angela, all the while wearing a content smile.

After Angela finally finished, she helped Hana clean up the kitchen a bit, before they returned to her room to watch the replay of Hana's stream. And as the MEKA pilot almost dragged her along, eager to show off her battle skills on tv, Angela had to admit to herself that Hana's cooking had been significantly better than her nutrient packs.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize if parts of Angela's treatment are incorrect or not following proper procedure, but I don't work in an ER, and have never even been to one (which is funny considering the amount of injuries I would amass when I was younger), any actual EMTs or physicians feel free to correct any mistakes I may have made. Originally I had Hana singing 'Cruel Angel's Thesis', but this song turned out to fit the atmosphere of the scene a lot better. With thanks to the anons that beta'd this to catch a few more mistakes and suggested changing the song.


	3. Fun and Games

“Yes?” The comm at the door activated.

“Hey, it's Hana. Can I come in?”

“Of course.”

Angela looked up from the report she was filling out as Hana entered her room. “Good evening. To what do I owe the visit, is something troubling you?”

Oh, right. “Yeah, I... have a, um... headache?” Reeaal smooth there, she totally bought that.

Angela chuckled at Hana's flusteredness. “You know, you can just come by if you feel like company or whatever, there's no need to come up with excuses. In fact I'd much prefer if you didn't have any complaints.”

“Uh, right. Thanks.”

“But now that you're here anyways,” Angela continued “How is your eye?”

“It's keeps itching.” As if on cue Hana had to stop herself from rubbing the patch that was currently hiding her left eye. “But other than that I think it's fine.”

“That's good. You actually were really lucky there, you could easily have lost your eye, if not worse.”

“Guess so.” During a recent mission a minuscule crack in MEKA's windshield had suddenly given way under an explosion and Hana had taken a bunch of shrapnel to the face, “lookin' like a bloody zombie” afterwards, according to Tracer. So she'd done the only logical thing and taken a selfie before going to Angela to get it treated, and admittedly the array of small cuts all over the left side of her face on top of the – surprisingly painless and ultimately harmless – bleeding inside the white of her eye had indeed made for a rather gruesome image.

However the worst of the damage had been a corneal abrasion and a rather nasty sensibility to light, so Hana was stuck wearing an eyepatch for the time being – which she'd promptly decorated with her trademark bunny icon, much to Angela's amusement. The lack of depth perception was occasionally inconvenient, but looking into a mirror Hana had found that the eyepatch paired with the band-aids over her face didn't look half bad, in a way. Just tack on an arm sling, some bandages around her chest and blue hair, and she'd have the perfect cosplay going.

“I'm going to have to at least finish this report.” Angela said, returning Hana's attention to the present. “I'll need five minutes, at most, in the meantime feel right at home.”

“Sure. Take your time, doc.” As Angela returned her attention to whatever form she was filling Hana closed the door behind her, and after a slight pause started wandering around the room. It was funny how it was already starting to feel familiar to her after visiting just a handful of times; well, at least the main room was, Hana had only ever gotten a cursory glance at Angela's bedroom, but there was no real need for that either, the couch sufficed completely.

In fact, the last few days Hana probably had probably gotten back to Angela's offer for company if she had trouble falling asleep more often than not, and a few times she had ended up falling asleep on the couch as well, every time waking up to find herself covered with a blanket, even if she hadn't had one the night before. A small part of her kept nagging this was childish, like a little girl that needed her mommy to sleep, but she ignored it; as Angela had promised, she hadn't told anyone else about this, and it definitely beat lying awake in 'her' bed for hours, staring at that unfamiliar ceiling.

Hana came to a halt in front of set of shelves reaching all the way to the ceiling, holding among other things some decorative stuff, a few board games including a chess set, and a whole bunch of books. Following an impulse, Hana started inspecting the books, maybe there was something interesting in there.

 _Let's see..._ As expected, there was a lot of specialized medical literature, both classical and modern from what Hana could tell. _The Hippocratic Corpus_ , _Huángdì Nèij_ _īng_ , _Pschyrembel Klinisches Wörterbuch_ , … English, Latin, German... even the ones Hana could actually read would probably be way over her head. But then, so would most of her gaming knowledge or MEKA's technical details for Angela. And if you put the medic into the cockpit, Hana figured odds were she'd end up falling straight on her face in short order, like the protagonist in the first episode of that one anime.

Hana pulled out a large illustrated anatomy atlas, solely out of curiosity, and a piece of paper that had been lodged in between the books fell out, fluttering to the ground. _Huh?_ Hana picked it up to take a look at it.

It was a standard-sized photograph featuring Torbjörn and Angela posing for the camera. The former was wearing a horned viking helmet, but otherwise looked much the same as he did now, including his red cybernetic eye. Angela, while not visibly younger either, was wearing an oversized witch's hat, a short capelet and a red and orange dress of sorts with a very generous cleavage showing off – and emphasizing – her chest quite nicely.

 _...Not bad._ Clearly Angela's normal wardrobe wasn't quite doing her figure justice; neither the Valkyrie suit nor her usual black turtleneck she wore under her labcoat were really letting on Angela was so ...hot.

It took several seconds for Hana to realize she was rather blatantly staring at the photo, though thankfully Angela was still engrossed in her paperwork and didn't notice. _Get a grip, Song-Hana._ This wasn't quite appropriate, was it now? She put the photo face-down atop the row of books, but after a few moments her curiosity got the better of her and Hana picked it up again before walking up to Angela and placing the photo next to her report. “Say, where's this picture from?”

“Oh?” Angela looked up and inspected the picture. “Where'd you find that?”

“It was stuck in your bookshelf.”

“So that's where that ended up, I wonder how it got _there_ of all places.” Angela finished the final report with her signature and put it into the tray, then spun around on her chair as she continued. “Anyways. It's from a Halloween party a few years back, during the time of the original Overwatch.”

“That's like six years back, right?”

“This particular party was closer to eight, I believe. ...Or was that nine?”

“Nine years? You don't look any older than back then.”

“Why, thank you.”

 _Hang on..._ Hana just noticed something. Eight years ago, and Angela had told her she'd joined Overwatch at 27, that added up to no less than... “Um, Angela, if I may ask, how old are you anyways?”

“How old do you think?” Angela tilted her head with a smile.

“You'd have to be 35 at least, – basic math – but you, well, don't really look the part.”

Angela let out a bright laugh “That's sweet of you; I'm 37, actually.”

“Seriously? I totally would've bought if you'd said mid-twenties.” Going purely by her looks at least. At times Angela's expression and her eyes in particular would have... something about them, that hinted at her age, and the experiences she'd made.

Like right now. But a split second later it was gone again. “Would you.” Angela lightly shrugged. “I suppose I just got a lucky predisposition from my parents, and I do take care of my appearance a little bit at least.” After a brief pause she continued “Seeing as the photo somehow wound up between my books, now I wonder if that costume is still in its place.”

 _Hm?_ Hana perked up “You still have it?”

“Well, yes. Even if I normally don't have much time for parties of any sort, there was no reason to throw it away, and it wasn't all that cheap either.”

A slightly improper idea was forming in the back of Hana's mind, and before she noticed it had already made its way to her mouth. “How about you put it on for the evening?”

Angela raised an eyebrow “Huh, why?”

“...Why not? I'm sure you're gonna look good in it.”

“Are you sure this isn't just a little inappropriate?”

No. “Yes. And if you find that embarrassing or whatever, I can make it up to you with a few pictures of me I could send you.”

“And what kind of 'pictures' would that be?” Angela sounded kind of dubious and Hana grinned at her.

“Expecting something indecent?” Angela quickly shook her head, but her slightly flustered expression told Hana she had at least considered the possibility. Funny. “It's some pics from when I was like 7, my mom recently sent me the whole album; she says I'm adorable, I say it's embarrassing. That way you'd have a bargaining chip to make sure I don't tell anyone.”

“That's... I don't think something like that will be necessary. But I suppose you're right, there's no harm in trying on the costume for a bit.” Angela stood up, stretching her arms and back. “Wait a moment.”

Angela went to her bedroom, closing the door after her, and as Hana waited she distracted herself looking for something they could do this evening, and after a few moments had an idea. There was no way Angela had seen _this_ movie. “Athena?”

“ _Yes?”_ The AI's computerized voice answered after a brief delay.

“I need you to find a movie for me and send it to Ang- Mercy's tv, please.”

“ _Of course. Can you give me the title or name of the director?”_

“It's the 1954 movie _Gojira_ , directed by Ishirou Honda.”

“ _... I uploaded the movie to Doktor Ziegler's room. Is there anything else?”_

“No, that's all, thanks, Athena.”

“ _You're welcome. Have a good evening, D.Va.”_

“Yeah, um, you too.” Could one really wish an AI a good evening? Well, Hana considered true AI to be people too, so a bit of politeness definitely didn't hurt, but as a being without a physical body or day-night-cycle, was 'evening' specifically even relevant to Athena at all... However before Hana could continue her train of thought even more off the rails, she heard the door to Angela's room open and turned around.

 _Whoa_. Hana's assessment had been very much right, Angela was still pulling off the costume perfectly. The large hat was slightly tilted forward, hiding Angela's eyes and giving off a hint of mysteriousness. The dress was a little frilly and pretty short, showing a lot of leg which Hana was assuming would be complemented by heeled boots and/or stockings, possibly fishnet, in the full costume, but right now Angela was barefoot, which ultimately was fine too.

“So... what do you think?” Angela asked after several seconds of silence and Hana realized she'd been checking her out for way too long and hurried to answer.

“Right. You look” Hot? Sexy? Hana couldn't really say that, could she? Gorgeous? “seriously great. I told you.”

“Know what?” She continued a moment later “There totally should be some kind of Halloween party this year too. I already know what costume I'd wear.”

“Do you?”

“Yeah. I'd have to borrow one of those eyepatches and some other bandages and stuff, though.”

“Those are medical supplies, not dress-up accessories. And besides, what would you need things like that for?”

“For a cosplay.”

“And as whom?” Hana had half expected Angela to ask for clarification, but it appeared she'd actually gotten the distinction right.

“You wouldn't get the reference. Although... I totally should catch you up on that one at some point, it's still one of the best anime series ever made.” And almost eerily similar to her own story with MEKA and the Kaiju Omnic, except less mind-screwy. So far. “But for today I already found another movie we can watch.”

Hana took the remote before dropping onto the couch and gesturing Angela to sit down, and after a short deliberation she complied, leaving the costume on. “Lucky this is an old film anyways, with one eye 3D kinda falls flat.” Wow, she hadn't even intended to make a stupid pun, but apparently Angela completely missed it, which was probably for the better.

“What movie is it?”

“You'll see. And I'm willing to bet you never watched this one before. So get ready for a piece of movie history.”

* * *

0.1892, 0.1874, 0.1860, 0.31- _Moment mal._ Angela blinked a few times to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her or she'd jumped a line. Nope. ...0.4226 ...0.5103 ...then it was back to 0.10-

Next row to the right. 0.1901, 0.1870, 0.18, 0.4, 0.5, 0.3, 0.3, 0.09... The two rows after that weren't painting a better picture either. After two or three values in line with what she'd expect, the absorbance would be way too high for several readings, then drop down to sensible values again.

 _Oh, verdammt._ Angela didn't even have to look at the reference series to the far left to see the concentrations were off by multiple orders of magnitude; the data was useless. There was next to no way the experiment could have gone wrong in a way as to produce such a mess of data, even less so in this particular manner, so most likely she had made a mistake while filling up the microplate and splashed something over some of the wells without even noticing.

Angela dropped her head into her hands. It would have been enough for her concentration to lapse for a mere two seconds to ruin everything. _Was für ein Anfängerfehler_. She'd have to redo the whole experiment tomorrow.

With a frustrated sigh Angela crumpled the printout of the readings and tossed in the general direction of her bin. Of course she had a whole bunch of other work left she could be doing, but right now she wasn't feeling like it anymore, especially after a look at the clock confirmed it was rather late already.

Instead she turned to her – by now – semi-regular visitor. Hana had stopped showing up almost every night – under however flimsy or valid pretenses –, which probably was a good thing in as much as it meant she was having less trouble sleeping and generally feeling better, but the pilot still visited her often enough to spend the evening before returning to her room – or falling asleep on Angela's couch. Not that Angela minded any of that in the slightest, in fact she'd found she rather enjoyed the younger girl's company and found it oddly refreshing. Sometimes they would watch a movie or show together, chat about whatever, mostly the day's mission, or just each do her own thing, silently keeping each other company.

Like right now. While Angela was frustrating at her messed-up measurements, Hana was sitting on the couch with her laptop, wearing a headset and fully absorbed in a... video, probably. By now Angela had picked up on the amount of rapid clicking – and occasional muttered curse or cheer – that accompanied D.Va actually playing; but currently apart from short bouts of typing Hana was just intently following whatever she was watching.

After a brief pause Angela got up and silently approached the couch, looking over Hana's shoulder to see what had her so captivated. It clearly was a video game, or probably a recording of one, seeing as Hana ostensibly wasn't the one doing the playing.

Seeing as she didn't want to distract Hana, Angela tried to make sense of the game herself. Her first impression was that the camera was twitching and jumping a lot, which made the whole thing rather disorienting, but probably that simply was her inexperience with video games in general. Once she'd gotten used to the movements a little, Angela could make out numerous small figures and structures, and lots of red and green markers, probably denoting friend and foe. In a corner of the screen there was a small map with several red and green dots as well as various other symbols that weren't telling her anything.

To the side of the main game there was a small window showing a young man with a headset who appeared to be the one playing the game, and below him were variously colored lines of text and symbols scrolling by. Just now Hana typed something and a moment later her handle appeared at the bottom of the screen

_D.Va: @PaleAsh Grounded right now b/c of injuries :( check the pic I posted a few days ago. Be back to battle as soon as I can ;)_

So this was live? Then it wasn't a recording, but a... what was the word Hana used... stream, right. Judging from the chat, the player she was watching went by 'Raz0r', though a few were referring to him as 'Keith' too; his opponent seemed to be a girl by the the equally fine-sounding and oxymoronic name of 'Scarlet_Jade'.

In light of this, Angela... still had little idea what was actually going on. Best she could tell, over the next few minutes, the units and vehicles in green mounted an assault on several red buildings, destroying them one by one, and going by the – progressively more caps-filled – chat, 'Raz0r' was winning. And true enough, a little later the screen showed a large VICTORY and the chat filled with congratulations and 'gg's; Angela had heard Hana use that acronym before, but even if context made it mostly apparent, she didn't know what it actually meant, she probably should ask her about that.

As the video went to what looked like a collection of statistics, Hana closed her laptop and took off her headset, and only now seemed to notice Angela's presence as she turned to the side – and nearly butted her head against Angela's, who hadn't even noticed she'd been inching closer and closer to the girl.

“Whoa!” Too close. Hana flinched back and Angela startled, almost jumping backwards against a shelf.

“S-sorry!” Angela actually felt herself blush a little, flustered both for needlessly surprising Hana and for invading her personal space like this.

“You could've said something!”

“Sorry, I didn't want to distract you.”

However Hana quickly recovered from the surprise and just laughed it off. “Fair enough. Don't know how much you watched, but that one was a pretty good match, wasn't it?”

Angela gathered her composure and walked over, sitting on the couch next to Hana before answering. “Truth be told, I didn't understand anything that was going on, all I gathered was that this 'Raz0r' was streaming the game, and that he won. Correct?”

“Yep.” Hana nodded “And pretty impressively at that, games normally don't end nearly this one-sided. Jade just made one small misplay and Raz0r was able to capitalize on that and perfectly snowballed from there. Right at the start when she-”

“Sorry, _Liebes,_ ” Angela interrupted her before she really could get going “but I only saw the last five minutes or so, and either way I don't know _anything_ about this game. ...Actually I don't even know what game it was.”

“Oh, right.” Hana's enthusiasm visibly deflated. “You're not into gaming.”

“No one here is.” She continued a moment later “I thought maybe Tracer would, but turned out she's a... casual.” Hana pronounced the last word almost as if it were some kind of horrible swear; Angela had no idea what the word was supposed to mean in that context, but her best bet was that it related to that one time Lena had brought some sort of 'party game' to the common room and tried to get everyone else involved, much to Hana's thinly veiled derision. But before she could ask for an explanation Hana already went on “And everyone else is – no offense – too old and boring to care for this stuff.”

Angela chuckled “None taken. But what would you think instead of complaining about boring grown-ups not knowing anything about video games, you explained your video games to this old woman?”

Hana's face practically lit up. “Wait, you actually want me to tell you about that stuff?”

“ _Klar, warum nicht?_ But you have to be sure to start with the _really_ basic things. Like if I were to explain the _Asklepios_ nanites to you, the sort of basic you'd want me to start with.”

Hana positively beamed at her with a wide smile. “Cool! So, the basic things, huh? ...You do know those so-called 'computers'” she actually did air-quotes with her fingers “can play those things called 'video games', right? That means-”

“Very funny.” Angela cut her off. “I'm at most a single generation older than you, not from the last millennium. Maybe start by telling me what that game you just watched is called, and what it's about.”

“Well, that's easy. That was _Starcraft II_.” So that was 'Hana's' game, so to speak, the one she'd held the title in for three years, Angela remembered that much at least. “It's an RTS ...Sorry, real-time strategy game; as opposed to turn-based strategy. The point is to gather resources, build a base and troops, and use those to destroy your enemy's base and troops before he does the same to you.”

“That sounds simple enough.”

“It is. But there's also a ton of strategy involved. For starters, you have three factions: The Terrans, Protoss and Zerg. And they...”

…

Hana proceeded to explain the game in great detail, and even though she kept jumping between discussing gameplay mechanics, professional-level strategy and the game's plot – which had no bearing on competitive play whatsoever, but apparently was very interesting nonetheless –, and at times would get hasty so Angela had to remind her to slow down, in the end Angela felt she had gotten at least a basic grasp on the core aspects of the game. And thus was able to follow Hana's recap of the stream just now, and what made that victory so interesting.

“...and, I mean, you have to admit that was pretty good play, from that one small opportunity.” Hana finished “Right?”

“I suppose so.” According to what she'd learned at least.

“Though I did notice one pretty big flaw... okay it's not all that big, but it's big enough, if you know what I mean. We just saw how a small mistake can snowball an entire game.”

“That we did. And what would that flaw be?”

“This is far from the first time I've seen him do that, but the way Raz0r tends to set up his base-” Hana's stomach audibly growled and she interrupted herself with a sheepish grin. “Oops. I totally forgot to get dinner before the stream started.”

“Hang on, I've got some nutrient packs-”

Angela moved to get up, but Hana stopped her. “Don't bother.”

“Hm?”

“Nutrient packs don't count, I need some _actual_ food.”

If anything, the packs were much more practical than normal food, if a little bland. But seeing as Angela was in fact just as hungry, and she wasn't working anyways, it wasn't like she had to save time or anything. “Fair enough. Let's go find some dinner, then.”

…

“Fay, Angela, fhy-” Hana stopped to swallow her bite before she continued “why'd you ask me about my games and stuff anyways, you're not even into gaming.”

Good question. Why _had_ she? ...After a few moments Angela simply shrugged. “I'm not sure. I was just curious, I suppose. After all, those things pretty much were your job, and they still mean a lot to you, don't they?”

“Well, yeah. You could almost say gaming is what I am.”

“And you're D.Va.”

“That's right!” Hana struck a pose – as much as she could sitting at the table –, nearly knocking down her glass. “The number 1!”

But was she really? Most of the time Angela was clearly talking to Song-Hana, not D.Va. ...On that note, what was she herself? Angela or Mercy? When she was patching up the team after a mission, Doktor Ziegler. But other than that... However before Angela could go off on that philosophical tangent, Hana spoke up again.

“You know, you're the first one ever since I got here who's actually interested in my gaming at all. You'd think at least someone would've asked out of politeness at some point, but nope. Not even the – kinda – young ones like Tracer and Pharah.”

“You are aware Fareeha is some three times closer in age to me than to you.”

Hana shrugged. “I still figured there was a chance she'd play some video games too. But instead I got the feeling she hates fun.”

“I can assure you Fareeha does know how to have fun too. It's just that she's trying very hard to be as professional as she can at all times. ...Maybe a bit too hard even; I suppose that's what growing up the daugher of one of Overwatch's founders will do to you.”

“Whatever. It's nice that at least someone here who cares about me- ...my hobbies and junk.” Hana seemed legitimately happy about Angela's interest in her games, and in fact she had been particularly upbeat the whole evening. Was it really that unexpected? Angela just wanted to know her a little better. Even though she actually weren't quite able to put it, why this loud, still-half-a-girl of all people was so-

“Hey,” Hana called back Angela's attention, indicating the desert she'd left on her plate almost untouched, lost in thought. “Are you gonna finish that?”

…

“And you're sure I'm not boring you or anything?” Hana asked as they were making their way back to Angela's room.

She asked after well over an hour of talking, somewhat late, wasn't it? But Angela shook her head. “Not at all. It's quite revealing, actually. I never would've thought there was this much depth to video games.” Truth be told, until now she simply had never cared enough to learn anything about them at all.

“That's still far from all there is to it. And Starcraft isn't even _that_ complex, mechanically. In fact it's rather simple, the main part is that you're playing the game just as much as your opponent.”

“So not unlike chess or some card games.” Hana nodded. “Speaking of, I do own a rather beautiful chess set I get to use far too seldom. Would you mind playing me at some point? It's the original RTS after all.”

“It's not an _RT_ S, it's turn-based.”

“Right.”

“But sure, we can play. I even used to be kind of good at it; a classmate got me into chess for a while when she learned I was a fan of strategy games. I'm probably totally rusty by now, though.”

“So am I. That means we're about evenly matched.” They reached the room and Angela opened the door, letting Hana enter first, then closing the door behind them.

“If you say so. But not today anymore, I'm kinda tired, so I'd play totes garbage. Let me show you something instead.”

Hana turned on Angela's PC and waited for her to enter the password, motioned for her to open the internet browser, then leaned over her shoulder to type in an address, expertly navigating the site until she reached a list of ostensibly video thumbnails. “Check it out, all of my streams. Starcraft, including the the championships, my sorties with MEKA, Overwatch, and whatever other games and stuff.” Hana quickly scrolled down, showcasing the length of the list.

“That's... a lot of videos.”

“Gotta keep the fans entertained somehow. ...You weren't planning on doing any more work today, were you?”

She really should, but her screw-up from before still irritated her, so “I don't think so.”

“Good, because then you get to see the number 1 in action. Let's go with... this one.” Hana picked a video seemingly at random, a game of Starcraft, with a cut-in showing a visibly younger Hana in front of the camera. “As you can see this is a pretty old one.” Hana commented. “Gods, how did I ever think make-up was a good idea? I clearly look better all-natural.”

After a short inspection Angela found she had to agree, but...“Aren't you still wearing make-up?”

“Huh?” Hana's fingers moved to the – somewhat faded – whisker-like markings on her cheeks. “That's no make-up. It's war paint. I actually wanted to get a programmable nano-tattoo there so I can simply turn it on and off instead of renewing it every few days. But those things are expensive and my mom wouldn't let me until I was of age, but I never got around to getting one for whatever reason, and then I got drafted into MEKA, which took up even more of my time, and yeah...” She trailed off. “Whatever. Just ignore that stylistic fail in the corner and watch the gameplay instead.”

Even though in principle Angela figured she understood how the game worked, in practice she still had difficulty actually following the game; Hana's commentary helped her make sense of some things, but especially the way the camera would erratically jump back and forth between various units kept throwing her for a loop. But somehow Angela found that didn't matter all that much; she understood enough to get the gist of what was happening and who was winning, and Hana's genuine enthusiasm, both recorded and live, easily made up for it.

After the game ended – not very surprisingly – with a victory for D.Va, Hana returned to the couch with her laptop, and Angela tried to force herself to get some work done, at least make sure the other experiment wasn't a total failure too, but to little avail. After a few minutes she gave up on it, and turned around to Hana – only to find the girl curled up on the couch, sleeping soundly.

Angela quietly stood up, dimmed the lights and gently draped a blanket over Hana's sleeping form, then brushed her lips against her forehead in a good-night kiss, before returning to her desk.

Now, what was the address of that site Hana had just showed her...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: A reminder that the fic is (partially) in anachronistic order; both scenes happen in between the first two chapters, though the second bit could equally well happen afterwards. This chapter contains assorted Neon Genesis Evangelion and other references, foreshadowing, an odd philosophical tangent, and then some.
> 
> The injuries to Hana's eye do behave like this in real life. And the photo she finds is canon and in-universe, as seen attached to Winston's screen during the 'Recall' short (link: https://imgur.com/qHU0pgz). 
> 
> In the second scene (which is a completely different evening some time later, I just wound up putting both into one chapter because individually they would've been a bit too short) the results from Angela's experiment are not just random numbers. Instead they're made to resemble photometric measurements of the absorbance (which is logarithmic, thus unitless) of the results of an ELISA, with the sort of error that you'd get if you screw up big time and contaminate half your experiment. This is university-level stuff, either take my word for it (I used to study that stuff, and did a practical course in a biochemistry lab) or google it if you have to. However I don't know anything about Starcraft II, hopefully I got everything mostly right; if not blame it on artistic license, or maybe pretend in-universe Blizzard pushed another major patch for the game that completely changed the gameplay/meta.
> 
> Lastly I do apologize for the long wait for this chapter, but I was struggling with some highly annoying writer's block for a while, as well as some RL stuff (nothing dramatic, though). Once more with thanks to /u/'s anons for proofreading. And as always any kind of feedback/opinion is greatly appreciated.
> 
> Peace out


	4. All Work and no Play

“Hey, Angela! Guess who~o?” The only one who had the codes to her room and would make this sort of entrance, so an answer wasn't really necessary. Hana entered the room, finding the medic sitting at her desk covered in a slew of papers and sticky notes, and her computer running, the clearly audible fan indicating it was processing quite the workload.

“Wow, you're still working? You should take a break, I got this really cool movie that just came out we could watch.”

Angela didn't answer, and in fact didn't acknowledge Hana's presence at all.

“Angela? Are you listening?”

“...I'm sorry, Hana. I still have a lot of work to do. I _need_ to find a way to counteract the poison Talon used during our last mission, it's incredibly dangerous. We're honestly lucky they used a small amount, and in an area mostly populated by Omnics, which thankfully turned out to be immune to it. But if they set off a large amount in the middle of a crowded city, we're looking at tens of thousands dead within hours.”

No kidding. This awfully dark and edgy 'Reaper' guy had cooked up some real nasty stuff there. Pharah had only breathed some of it for like a second and it had already been enough to send her into convulsions and breathlessness that would have killed her without Mercy right there to save her, and she was still in the infirmary 3 days later. And Zarya had somehow taken a splash of the liquid state against her arm, leading to extensive discoloration and burns that would most certainly leave a scar even after Mercy had treated it. And those had been trained soldiers and only brief exposure, three guesses what larger amounts of the stuff would do to the children and elderly in particular.

“And I can't let that happen.” Mercy continued as if the task was hers alone; she'd probably been working on this ever since they got back from that mission and she'd finished treating everyone. “So I'm afraid I won't be very entertaining today, but feel free to keep me company anyways.”

“Oh... All right.” Angela did have a point there, and killing time here still beat killing time alone in her room. Hana dropped onto the couch and fired up her laptop to see if anyone interesting was streaming right now.

After a few more attempts at conversation that went about equally well, Hana ultimately gave up and they spent the rest of the evening in silence before she ended up falling asleep on the couch.

* * *

Hana woke up shivering, she'd totally forgotten to grab a blanket. But from the looks of it it already was morning, so there was no point trying to fall asleep again, may as well get a head start, early bird and all that.

Getting up with a yawn and stretching herself, she found Angela sitting at her desk again, just like the night before. ...Actually, almost exactly as the night before. As Hana approached her, Angela only briefly looked up before turning back to her work, but the quick look at her face pretty much confirmed Hana's suspicion.

“Angela, did you even sleep at all tonight?”

“There was no need. This research is more important.”

“Come on, you even _sound_ tired. A bit of rest would do you some good.”

“Again. There is no need. I can keep going.” Angela's voice took a slightly sharper tone Hana had only heard a few times before, and she backed off a little.

“Okay, okay. If you say so. Just wait here, I'll get some breakfast for us.”

Once more Angela didn't reply, but Hana hurried off anyways, returning a little later and placing a small tray with some scrambled eggs, toast and a large mug of coffee on Angela's desk.

“There you go. Just the way you like it.” Time permitting, the two would frequently eat together, so Hana had soon picked up on the doctor's preferences.

“...You better eat while it's still warm.” She added a bit later when Angela made no move to even touch her food.

“That wasn't necessary, Hana. I have nutrient rations, those will suffice.”

“Yeah, but you're not even eating those. Angela, please.” Hana said in a pleading tone. “You honestly look awful. If you're not gonna sleep, at least make sure you're not starving. ...For me.” She added after a short pause, and it finally seemed to have some effect.

“Alright, fine.” With a long sigh Angela pushed two fingers against the bridge of her nose as if adjusting a pair of glasses; she would do that from time to time, even though Hana had never seen her wear glasses at all, and she didn't appear to need any either. “If that will get you off my back.”

Hana pouted as Angela began hastily scarfing down her food. “I'm only looking out for you, you know.”

“I can look out for myself just fine. And don't you have a mission to be on?”

Hana ignored the sting in Mercy's words. “Yeah, I need to get going. And I'll say it again, even if you're not gonna listen: You really should take a break.” Angela briefly glared at her, even though the effect fell kinda flat thanks to her obviously tired expression. “Called it. Whatever, I'll be back in a few hours with some lunch. See you.”

Once more Angela didn't answer.

* * *

“He~ey! Guess who's back? I brought some pi-” The pizza cartons hit the floor as Hana dropped them to rush to Angela's side, the medic's unconscious form slumped over her desk.

“Angela! Are you okay?” No answer, but the medic's breath was calm and regular, and it quickly got apparent she had fallen asleep from exhaustion literally in the middle of her work, her face smeared with bits of ink from the paper she'd been resting on and the note, a molecular structure of some sort, was mostly illegible – in a sharp contrast to Angela's normally very clean and neat handwriting.

“'Responsible grown-ups', my ass.” With an exasperated sigh Hana considered her options. If she woke Angela now, the woman would most definitely insist on getting back to work immediately, but Hana couldn't really leave her like this either. But Angela was a fair bit taller and probably heavier than her, so Hana would have her dear trouble trying to move her to her bed on her own, especially without waking her.

After thinking back and forth a bit, Hana wound up having Athena call Winston, who didn't even need an explanation at the scene and effortlessly picked up Angela, gently carrying her into the bedroom. Hana quickly followed him, noting this was actually the first time she'd entered Angela's bedroom; but it was honestly pretty unremarkable, little more than some more bookshelves, a large wardrobe and a messy bed.

Hana quickly moved the blanket to the side for Winston to put Angela onto her bed, then pulled it back over her, her hand briefly lingering against the medic's cheek before she turned to leave the room, closing the door behind her.

“Don't worry, Doktor Ziegler is going to be fine.” Winston greeted Hana, her concern apparently written on her face. “She does this from time to time, and when she gets like this there's no real stopping her. But she'll be alright.”

Hana wanted to protest that that wasn't really much of a consolation, but there'd be little point in discussing this with Winston. “If you say so. I'm gonna stay here anyways.” And she _was_ gonna stop Angela if she had to, or at the very least make sure she got enough sleep.

“Very well.” Winston just said with a doubtful expression, then headed towards the door. “See you later, D.Va.”

“Yeah. Later.” Lazing on the couch Hana turned on her laptop and fired up a game, waiting what Angela was going to do when she woke up.

* * *

Angela got up barely 3 hours later, and Hana looked up as she entered the living room. Somehow the doctor looked even worse than she had before, almost as pale as death itself. Yet she was headed for her desk once more, not even acknowledging Hana until the girl planted herself right in her way.

“Stop it right there. Just where do you think _you're_ going like this?”

“Hana, now is not the time. I need to get back to my research. It looks like Gabriel specifically designed the molecular structure so as to obfuscate its actual reaction mechanism, but I think I'm on to something.”

“What you _need_ is more rest.”

“Don't be silly, Hana.”

“I'm not being silly!” Hana frowned. “I'm seriously worried about you! You look horrible.”

“There's no need to. I'm fine.”

“You're clearly not. You can hardly stand!” Angela didn't answer and pushed past Hana with an annoyed _tsk_ , stopping only when the teen grabbed her shoulder.

“Hana!” she snapped, spinning around “What are you doing?”

But Hana wasn't going to be intimidated this time. “You can't keep working like this, you need to take a break.”

“I can and _will_ keep working like this, and I don't need a break.”

“You do! You're ruining yourself!”

“So what? I have to finish this research, for the sake of everyone!”

“No you don't!” Hana noticed both of them were steadily rising in volume, and tried to lower her voice “You gotta think of yourself too.”

“I don't. This exact thing is what I joined Overwatch for. To dedicate my life to helping others.”

“Well, yeah, so did I. So did everyone here. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, then what good are we?”

“You don't understand! I'm the only one who can do this!”

“No, _you_ don't understand!” By now Angela was practically shouting, and Hana easily kept up with her. “If that Reaper guy walked in through this door right now, carrying a nice, large bucket with his whatever poison, what would you do?”

“I'd stop him!”

“You wouldn't!” Hana shoved Angela with both hands and the medic took a step backwards. “You can't even stop me!”

“Hana, quit it!”

“No!” She pushed Angela again “Aren't you seeing it? You can't go on like this, you _have_ to rest! Please...” Hana forced herself to calm down, shouting wasn't gonna achieve anything. “If not for you, then- then for the people you care about.”

“Why are we even arguing about this?!” Angela angrily brushed Hana's arms away. “I know I said you're always welcome here, but I will _not_ have you interfere with my work. So if that's all you little child want to do right now, you may as well get out!”

Ouch. Hana flinched at Mercy's outburst, suddenly at the verge of tearing up, the words hitting her much deeper than she cared to admit. But the more conditioned, player, part of her kicked in and she kept her pokerface; if anything, this showed D.Va she could not back down now.

“No, you're not getting it! What good are you if you overwork yourself until you collapse and end up in hospital yourself?”

“You're being silly, Hana.” Angela protested “I can keep myself going, I know my limits.”

“You clearly don't! What do you think is gonna happen if you continue like this? What are the rest of us gonna do without you there to patch us up next time we get shot at?!” Angela didn't answer, and it looked like Hana had hit a bit of a sore spot, but she mercilessly continued. “Imagine this, doc. Lena's cute cheery face. Except it's covered in blood and she's crying, because she has three bullets in her lungs, and there's no way she's gonna make it to the hospital in time!”

Angela recoiled as if she'd been struck and Hana regretted the words as soon as she said them. _Shit._ There Hana had gone again, speaking before she fully thought about the scope of her words.

And it wasn't like she didn't know Angela had lost people close to her before. Yet Hana had brought up the subject anyways, because she'd – rightfully – guessed it would lower her defenses. Because that's what you had to do to win. Except, this wasn't some stupid childish video game where she could trash-talk her opponent into tripping up, this was real life, and saying those sort of things to someone else's face lead to... this.

Angela was obviously struggling to keep her composure, looking as if she was about to start crying, and suddenly so was Hana, and just as Angela was about to say something she pre-empted her “Ohmygod, Imsorryangela, Ishouldnthavesaidthat, sosorry, please-” “Hana,” The medic cut her off with a weary voice. “I-”

However her reply fell short as a sudden wave of exhaustion and dizziness hit her and Angela staggered before falling forward, right towards Hana. Of course the girl tried to catch her, but the difference in height and weight was too big, and she was forced to take a step back and still was about to fall over; all she could do was direct their fall to the side so they ended up landing on the couch instead, Hana somehow sitting more or less normally, but Angela half lying, her head resting in Hana's lap and her eyes closed.

“Angela, are you okay? I'm really sorry for what I just said and that was totally uncalled for and I'm sorry, Imsosorry, pleasedonthateme-” “Hana.” Hana kept working herself up, talking faster and faster, and again it took but a single word from Angela to stop her.

By all rights Angela should have been angry at Hana for all of this, but she didn't find it in her; if anything, she was thankful. Hana had been pretty ruthless, but in fact she had had a valid point; and besides, right now Hana was actually quite comfortable, and she smelled kind of nice, like strawberries or something, and Angela _was_ really tired, so “Hana... I think I'm... going to lay down for a bit.”

“O-okay...” The relief was clearly audible in the girl's voice, as if she'd been expecting to be yelled at or worse, but she very quickly bounced back to normal again. “Let's get you to bed, then.”

 Right, Angela probably should get to bed, but she found she was quite content the way she was right now. “Come on. You can't sleep like this.” She totally could. “Come _on_.” Hana kept nudging her shoulder, so after a few more moments Angela mumbled something incoherent before sitting up with a groan.

Hana quickly helped Angela up and took her arm to guide her to her bedroom. While Hana straightened out the messy bed a little, Angela searched for her nightwear, then started taking off her trousers and Hana quickly turned away, waiting for her to finish changing. When Hana turned around after a good few seconds, Angela was wearing an oversized white t-shirt with a big red cross on it and – judging from the discarded clothes on the floor – underpants. Ooh, a black bra, Hana wondered if that also meant Angela also wore black panties- now was really not the time, perish the thought.

“G-good night, Angela.” Hana quickly said, ushering Angela towards her bed – when all of a sudden the taller woman wrapped both arms around Hana, drawing her into a hug. “Good night, Hana. And thank you for setting my head straight.”

Hana reflexively returned the hug, in the process distinctly noticing Angela wasn't wearing anything under that – rather flimsy – t-shirt, and even now she bore a slight smell of disinfectant, along with another diffuse, nonetheless almost enticing scent.

“Um...” Hana stumbled for words “You're... welcome? Thank _you_ for listening to me.”

Their embrace lingered for several seconds until Hana was afraid Angela might fall asleep like this, so she gently pulled back. “Come on, now go to bed.” “Mh.” Angela laid into the bed and Hana draped the blanket over her, brushing a hand through her hair. “Sleep well, Angela. Get some rest. Or a whole lot of rest, really.”

Smiling at Angela Hana turned around to leave, but just as she turned off the light, the medic's bleary voice made her pause. “Hana?”

“Hm?”

“You know, you probably should be here when I wake up, becau-” Angela was interrupted by a yawn, then continued “because I can't give any guarantees what I might do without a voice of reason keeping me in check.”

“Heh.” Angela probably couldn't see Hana's smile, but it was practically audible in her voice. “You got it, doc.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if there is an exact real life equivalent to the poison I'm describing here (and if/how you would counteract it), but given some of the nasty stuff I know exists, it doesn't seem to far-fetched. 
> 
> A little more drama this time, as well as some call backs to stuff brought up before (and one subtle detail that most readers won't even notice because they already know, but to Hana would have been some huge foreshadowing had she caught it). As before, with thanks to /u/'s anons for both the ideas for this fic and collective proofreading.
> 
> Peace out


	5. Day Off

Mostly out of habit Angela knocked at the door even as she was already pushing it open. “Hana, are you there?”

“Hey, doc.” The answer came out of the girl's bedroom, and Angela made her way over, finding Hana lying on her bed with her laptop. “'Sup?”

“I finally did it. I found a way to neutralize Talon's newest poison while it's still in the air.” Creating a treatment for the poisoning hadn't even been that hard, but given its rapid onset and lethality, Angela hadn't been able to stop until she could prevent the poison from acting in the first place – and made sure that substance itself wasn't dangerous either. “And it's all thanks to you.”

Hana shook her head. “You're the medical genius. I didn't even do anything.”

“You did. You made sure I got at least some rest. And once more I apologize for the way I acted then.”

“Again, it's okay. And besides, I said some ugly stuff too.”

“...But you were justified. I was being foolish.”

“Will you stop beating yourself up about this? It's in the past now. And you did find the antidote you were looking for, right, so cheer up.”

Angela sighed. “And again you're perfectly right. I'm sorry.”

Hana frowned as she closed her laptop and sat up. “Just quit it with the 'sorry', will you? And besides, you didn't only come here to tell me about this one thing and be mopey some more, did you? What's up?”

Astute as ever. “Well, I was... encouraged by all of Winston, Jack and Athena to take a day off once I was done with this task. So I was thinking of visiting the town tomorrow, maybe do some shopping, enjoy the nice weather, the sort of thing you do on a 'day off'. And I... was wondering if... if you would want to come along. I-if you don't have anything else to do, that is.”

“So...” Hana tilted her head, “like a date? ...Just kidding.” She quickly added with a laugh. “But I totally got time tomorrow, I'm in.”

“Great. Then let's say we meet at the entrance at ten?”

“Got it, I'll be there.”

* * *

“And as usual you're early.” Hana greeted Angela, who was waiting in the shade at the entrance of the building.

“I was perfectly on time; you're late.”

“I like my version better. You look good, that dress suits you.” Angela was wearing a plain white sleeveless summer dress, about knee-length and showing the slightest bit of cleavage, as well as a straw hat with a white ribbon running around it, filigreed-looking sandals consisting of a whole lot of thin leather straps, and a cream-colored handbag slung over her shoulder. The whole outfit was very simple, almost understated, yet Angela was giving off a certain poise, if not elegance, that made Hana almost feel like she was the one under-dressed.

“Thank you, so do you. Is that an actual school uniform?” Hana had indeed gone for that look, with low shoes, black stockings, a plaid skirt, white t-shirt and a light blue bow, coupled with her pink handbag and no markings on her cheeks, for a change.

“Sort of. The jacket's missing. But the bow and skirt were actually part of my uniform back at school.”

“I see. It does look good on you. Now, shall we get going?”

“Yeah, let's go. Do you have anything specific in mind?”

“Not particularly, I was simply going to go wherever and see what I find on the way.”

“Then follow me, there's this one place I wanna show you.”

“Are you sure you know the way? You haven't been here this long-”

“Puh-lease, who do you think you're talking to? I totally know where I'm going.”

...

“Truly, you totally know where you're going.”

“Did you just do that thing where you hold off the snarky comment until just the right moment just to make a point?”

Hana's pout, complete with her hands placed on her hips, was actually quite endearing and Angela chuckled before answering. “...Yes.”

“I don't get it. According to the map, it should be around here somewhere.”

“Yet we're clearly in a residential area and not the inner city. Hana, it's no big deal to admit you're lost.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, it's not.”

“Is too.”

“Fine.” Angela let out a small sigh. “Then you're totally _not_ lost, but how about you ask that person over there for directions anyways, purely to... double-check?”

“...Well, okay. Hey, mister! Excuse me...”

* * *

“ _PLAYER TWO WINS! FATALITY! PERFECT VICTORY!”_

“That was... needlessly brutal.” Angela dryly commented at the bloody mess on the screen in front of them as Hana grinned at her.

“Well, that's like the point of the game.”

“The point is brutally beating up your opponent and then dismembering her?”

“Dismember, decapitate, burn, freeze, melt with acid... the works. Be thankful this is one of the older games, the newer ones are even more realistic – and gory. The most recent one legit got a police investigation started to make sure no people got actually maimed or killed in the making. They weren't, by the way.”

“How very comforting.” Angela was still not sure how she felt about these excessively violent video games. On one hand Hana clearly was perfectly well-adjusted individual, playing this sort of games for fun, sport, or at worst the occasional stress relief. On top of that, D.Va was an actual soldier fighting an actual war, and as both she and Mercy could attest, no amount of games could ever compare to, nor even prepare one for, an actual battle.

On the other hand, even if the old misconception that video games automatically led to violence in children or even turned them into killers had long since been debunked and discredited, some of the kids at the arcade – a lot of them without supervision too – struck Angela as a little young and still very impressionable. Especially since an alarming number of games still featured 'evil' Omnics as the antagonists, 'bad guys' to be fought and killed en masse; there were still far too much tension and strife between humans and Omnics, so game producers shouldn't-

“Hey.” Hana nudged Angela's arm “Are we gonna play another round or no? There's people waiting.”

“Right. Sorry.” Angela hurried to the side and Hana followed her, clearing the cabinet for a pair of teenagers, then immediately started looking around for the next game to play, but paused when she noticed Angela's expression. “What's wrong? You're not enjoying yourself, are you?” Her face fell “I should have known the arcade was a stupid idea. I- We can-”

“That's not it.” Angela quickly interrupted her. “I was just thinking. ...Do you think by using Omnics as the antagonists so readily, the producers are sending the wrong message? Especially with how young some of the children playing here are.”

That question actually gave Hana pause for a few seconds before she slowly nodded. “Guess so, yeah. They really should stick to zombies, aliens and Nazis. Or zombie alien Nazis. You know, the classics.”

“On second thought,” She continued after looking around them once more “it kinda figures 'Mercy' wouldn't be into fighting games and stuff. But I think I just thought of something better. Come on!”

Hana took off and Angela hurried after her, and they entered another section of the arcade that seemed to be decorated more brightly than the part they'd been, with cheerful '8-bit' sounds filling the air. Judging from the people here, which included some adults, more girls and ostensibly families, Angela reckoned this would be the more 'casual' kind of games, and Hana was only even putting up with it for her sake – which of course didn't stop the girl from becoming almost aggressively competitive as soon as they began another game.

They ended up playing a variety of games, and though it didn't go quite as one-sided as that fighting game, Hana still won the majority, with one notable exception a trivia game where – not too surprisingly – Angela's knowledge proved much more diverse, and another a classical strategy game where, applying something Hana had told her about and instead of making the apparent 'best' move, predicting her opponent's course of action and basing her move off of that, Angela won by a few points.

That second one caused Hana to launch into a spiel how 'her career was over' if she kept getting beat by 'old people like that', yet Angela couldn't help but feel like Hana had let her have the win, some of her moves had been very obvious. But as long as Hana didn't say anything, neither would she, though she did appreciate the thought, especially for someone as competitive as Hana; it was kind of cute.

...

“And D.Va wins again!”

“Don't even act surprised.” Angela smiled. “It stands to expect you would beat me in most of these games. 'Gg. Well played.' Isn't that what they say?”

“Winning isn't nearly as fun when you're being such a good sport about it.”

“Right... 'Oh no, I have been beaten by the mighty D.Va, my career is ruined. I shall never play a video game again.' Better?”

“Ahahaha!” Angela's attempt at an overly dramatic voice succeeded in making Hana laugh out. “'Mighty D.Va', I like the sound of that. You wanna rematch?”

“Would it make a difference? There is no need.”

“Guess so. Let's get going, then, we can't spend the whole day playing games – I mean, I can, but you probably want to see some more of the city, don't you?”

“Yes, let's go.”

…

“Oh, hey, a claw game!” Just as they were about to exit the arcade, one of the strategically-placed machines caught Hana's attention. “This is only gonna take a moment.” Eyeing the prices inside the device, Hana inserted a coin, only for the claw to drop the prize as soon as she picked it up. “Oh come on! That was just a practice run!”

However after the second try proved equally fruitless, Hana glared at the machine as if it had personally insulted her, rummaging through her purse for some more coins. “Oh, it is _on_!” Heedless of Angela's – admittedly half-hearted – attempts to discourage her, Hana kept trying, taking almost another ten tries to win a small yellow plush, which she promptly presented to Angela with a wide smile. “Here, for you.”

“For me? How sweet of you.” Angela accepted the the plush, taking a closer look at it. The mostly yellow and black creature resembled a highly stylized and slightly anthropomorphized mouse with pointy ears, a jagged tail and a cheerful expression. “But, what is it?”

“It's a Pokémon.” Hana answered in a tone as if it were perfectly self-evident. “ _The_ Pokémon, in a way. Even with the fifteen hundred-something 'mons they got nowadays, this little guy is still the number one mascot. Too bad he's kinda weak in-game, but what can you do as an NFE? Not like in the anime where he's all kinds of OP.”

“I'm afraid I don't entirely follow.” Though by this point Angela at least knew what 'OP' meant in this context – which was somewhat funny because before getting to know Hana, it never would have meant anything other than 'operation' to her.

“It wasn't really important anyways.” Hana shrugged. “But he's totally cute, isn't he?”

Well, yes. Probably very carefully designed to be appealing to a wide demographic- ... _Sei doch nicht so._ Just take it for what it is, a cute little ...creature. A gift from Hana. “Yes. You know, I think I'll put him on my desk, as a reminder to take a break every now and then.”

“Heh.” Hana grinned, then paused, inspecting the plush's tail. “Actually, that's not a he, but a she. You can tell from the tip of the tail, it's got this dent in the middle so it kinda looks like a heart, the males don't have that. There's a fancy word for that too. Di- dino...”

“Sexual dimorphism.” Angela finished. “I see. Then I suppose I will give _her_ a spot on my desk. Anyways, shall be going then?”

“Yeah, let's move.”

* * *

“Oh hey, ice cream!” Barely out of the door of 'Flynn's Arcade', Hana nigh immediately found the next distraction, this time in the shape of an ice cream cart that had set up right across the street from them, and while the late summer day's heat was far from unbearable – especially for Angela who had worked in the Middle East and Africa before – it was still easily warm enough to enjoy ice cream. “Come one, let's go get some!”

“...Ah, damn.” While they were standing in line Hana rifled through her bag one more time before turning to Angela. “I used up all my cash, can you borrow me some until we find an ATM?”

“You know what? Don't worry about it, I'll treat you.”

“Really? Thanks a bunch!”

Angela returned Hana's wide grin with a smile. “It's nothing, really. You're welcome.”

The ice cream was surprisingly affordable, though Angela had to stop herself from reflexively reminding Hana that the full four scoops the girl got – two strawberry, one watermelon, and one awfully artificial-looking bubblegum – were in no way healthy, with all that sugar and what-not; but even if she herself had only gotten two scoops – vanilla, as she always did, and walnut – Angela wasn't really in a position to talk.

They leisurely wandered along eating their ice cream in relative silence, Hana seeming rather engrossed in her frozen treat. The way she ate somehow had something almost sensual to it, and Angela found herself paying an undue amount of attention, ignoring her own ice cream as in the back of her mind she wondered if right now the girl's lips would taste like strawberry too and had she really just thought that? _Hör auf damit_.

Suddenly Hana looked up, right at Angela, and the medic quickly turned to the side, wondering if she had been that obvious, but instead, “Hey, you've got some ice cream on your face.” Dodged a bullet there.

“Oh? Where?” However instead of an answer, Angela felt Hana's finger brush against the corner of her mouth as the teen wiped away the speck of ice cream that had been there – and then proceeded to lick it off her finger. When Angela registered what Hana had just done, she felt the heat rise in her cheeks and quickly turned away, bringing her ice cream to her mouth in a – probably failed – attempt to hide her blush.

“What's wrong?” Hana grinned at her, and Angela quickly shook her head and cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure.

“It's nothing, don't worry.”

“If you say so.” Hana put on a faux innocent expression. She _had_ to be doing this on purpose. That was- “Let's go check out that store over there! I need to get a new headset.” Again Hana was swiftly sidetracked, this time by the front of a large electronics store, but for once Angela was perfectly fine with the distraction interrupting this particular train of thought, so she simply followed the girl towards the store.

* * *

“You know, Hana, I just noticed something.” Angela said as they were slowly making their way through the inner city. “You're an international celebrity, yet the whole day not a single person noticed you, isn't that a little odd at least?”

Hana simply shrugged. “Well, you're just as famous, aren't you? And I'm not in my usual outfit, I don't even have the war paint on. If anyone, of the two of us, you're the one who's getting all the looks right now.”

“Am I?” Angela briefly looked around to find that, yes, several passers-by – mostly men, but a pair of women too – had been casting glances in their direction only to quickly look away when they noticed her attention. “I didn't realize. But are you sure it's me and not you?”

“Um, reality check, you're looking amazing right now.” It took Hana a moment to register what she'd just said and she quickly backpedaled. “I- I mean, you're totally more dressed up than anyone else too.”

“I suppose I am. I don't really go out all that often, so given the opportunity I couldn't help but indulge a little.”

“A little.” Hana echoed. “If that's 'a little', I'd love to see how you look if you wanna be really fancy. I bet you'd be totally gorgeous. Uh, even more gorgeous, I mean.”

“Why, thank you.” Angela let out a small laugh, and she could have sworn for a moment there was the faint hint of a blush on Hana's face, but maybe that had only been her imagination. “Though I think you're looking lovely too.”

“Um, thanks.” Definitely a blush; cute. “Whatever.” Hana hurried on “Back on topic, it's like... I'm not going out as D.Va right now, but as Hana. If that makes any sense.”

“I think it does. The same could be said of me, last I checked there weren't any wings on my back, and the Caduceus is safe and sound back at the armory.” Clearly her two most defining features as Mercy.

“Oh, I know!” Hana perked up. “Do you wanna see _her_?” Without even waiting for an answer, she all but transformed: She brushed a hand through her hair and oh-so slightly changed her step, her warm smile replaced by a more confident, if not cocky, grin.

The effect was almost instantaneous; Angela could almost physically feel the increased attention of the crowd around her, as multiple people stopped and stared, whispering to each other and a few taking pictures with their phones.

“Heh.” D.Va giggled at Angela's clearly visible surprise. “Pretty neat, huh? People don't actually pay a lot of attention, it only takes a few small things. Check this out.” She nudged Angela towards the entrance of a nearby café, and right as they passed the door, Hana shifted once more, falling half a step behind Angela, her body language returned to normal, and as they stood in line, nobody noticed, or at least recognized, them.

“That was quite impressive.” Angela said in between bites of cake, the two having occupied a small table somewhat near the corner of the room, and Hana returned a grin, at least halfway swallowing before she answered.

“It'f pwetty funny. ...You said it yourself, I'm a celebrity. Back in Korea I'd get swarmed if I as much as stepped out of the door, so I had to come up with something. People are looking for D.Va, the Number One, not the ordinary girl Song-Hana; that bit of posture is seriously all it takes sometimes. Though it's even better if I was wearing full makeup and stuff before; one time at a convention, after my panel was over, I simply changed my outfit and then stood right in the middle of the cheering fans waiting for autographs, and legit no one recognized me.” Hana giggled. “The Clark Kent must have been strong in me there.”

“I'm sure there's a lesson about human psychology somewhere in there.” For her part, Angela of course knew some of the basics, but it was mostly practice-oriented, things to help her deal with patients and the like, she was a surgeon first and foremost – or now, whatever she was with Overwatch. ...A kind of super-EMT, perhaps?

“Probably. I mean, everyone does that, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. People always act a bit differently, depending on the others around them and stuff. Or if they're at work or private. You could probably get a rabid bear to sit still and let you take his vitals if you're in full 'doctor' mode.” The mental image of a brown bear docilely sitting on her examination table made Angela smile, as Hana continued after a brief pause. “...Or at least most people do. Tracer is kinda always acting the same though, isn't she?”

Aside from a scant number of times where she had seen Lena truly sad or crushed, most notably after the murder of Gérard Lacroix, where not a hint of Tracer's trademark exuberance had been to be found, Angela had to agree, and she nodded. “Or Reinhardt.”

“Grandpa? Yeah, he doesn't even use a code name. ...Then again, why would he? With a name like _Reinhardt Wilhelm_!” Hana somehow managed to imitate the knight's manner of speaking surprisingly well, but her pronunciation made Angela chuckle.

“I'm afraid you butchered that one a little. Listen.” Angela slowly and clearly enunciated Reinhardt's name once more, and this time Hana managed to repeat it much closer, if still not perfect.

“Close enough.” Hana decided, returning her attention to her cake. “And if he complains, I'll just start calling him 'grandpa'.”

By the time Hana had finished her cake so had Angela, and she was just about to get ready to go when she noticed there was a small crumb of cake stuck to Hana's upper lip, and before she could stop it, a thought jumped to the front of Angela's mind. ...Could she really? This was highly inappropriate, wasn't it? Then again, Hana had done just the same, and turnabout was fair play, right?

“Hana, _Liebes_ , you have some cake on your face.” “Hm?” Angela swiftly reached over the table to swipe the crumb off Hana's face, trying her best to remain nonchalant as she brought the finger to her lips, even if she could feel herself slightly blushing too. But that did nothing to diminish Hana's reaction, who blankly stared at her for a split second before suddenly seeming to find something very interesting outside the window as she looked away, covering her mouth with one hand.

“Oh my, what's wrong?” Angela asked in a mischievous tone, hiding her smile behind a hand, and once Hana had caught herself a few moments later and turned back to Angela, she seemed to finally make the connection as she grinned at her. “Touché.” The competitive glint in Hana's eyes made Angela question if this had truly been a wise decision. Apart from the obvious reasons, if Hana had taken this as a challenge and an invitation to escalate the... the teasing, that would be... _Denk nicht mal dran._ Nothing good would ever come out of that.

However any potential immediate retaliation from Hana was pre-empted by a young voice addressing her. “Um, excuse me, miss?” A girl was standing at their table, looking at Hana with wide eyes. She had red hair in twintails, green eyes, and looked about 11 years old, at most. “You're D.Va, aren't you?”

“Yeah, that's me!” If not as pronounced as before, now that Angela was paying attention to it, the shift in Hana's demeanor was still noticeable as she gave the girl a wide smile.

“I knew it!” The girl beamed back at her. “Mommy told me I was being silly and I shouldn't bother strangers, but in the end she let me go.” Angela looked around the room to see a similarly redhead woman observing them, and gave her a wave and a smile to show everything was alright.

“I see.” D.Va answered the girl. “But could you keep it down a little, I'm here kinda privately.”

“Oh, sorry.” She immediately lowered her voice to little above a whisper, but since the room was relatively crowded and loud, D.Va still hadn't really been noticed. “I'm a huge fan of yours, and I was wondering if you could give me an autograph?”

“Of course. I think I got a pen, but do you have something for me to sign?”

“Um... The only thing I have is this article about you in a magazine, it's got a large picture, would that work?”

“I've already signed shoes, arms and one time a motorbike, so this is gonna do fine.” As the girl flipped through the magazine, D.Va produced a fancy pink pen from her handbag, and Angela briefly wondered if she always carried one with her just on the off chance of being asked for an autograph. She probably did. “Ah, that one.” D.Va seemed to recognize the article. “The interviewer was really nice and chill, and he even invited me to dinner.”

“He did what?!” Both Hana and the girl briefly looked over to Angela, and she realized her reaction had to have been a little out of proportion, as was the irritation suddenly bubbling in her chest.

But thankfully D.Va didn't dwell on it and continued. “Yeah, he invited me into a pretty fancy restaurant, I think he was asking me out on a date.” She shrugged. “Probably would have been kinda nice, but I didn't go; there simply wasn't the time, plus I suppose that also could have been seen as unprofessional or whatever. And he wasn't my type, like, at all.”

Angela breathed a small sigh of relief, but at least D.Va missed that one, as she was telling the girl an anecdote how apparently during that same interview a piece of studio equipment had spontaneously caught on fire. ...Just what was wrong? Why had this even ...bothered Angela? Normally this kind of reaction would have been... _Auf keinen Fall._ Clearly she'd just been appalled at that lack of professionalism, that had to have been it.

“So, what's your name?” D.Va asked the girl, readying her pen.

“Eleanor.”

“'For Eleanor. Love, D.Va.'” She finished her signature with a heart next to it, returning the magazine to Eleanor. “Here you go.”

“Yay!” Her entire face practically shining, Eleanor threw her arms around D.Va, which she returned after a split second of surprise. “Thank you so much!”

Angela couldn't help but smile at the utterly genuine joy radiating from the smaller girl, and she noticed so did Hana. “You're welcome. Anything for a fan.”

After a few moments Eleanor let go of D.Va, then, to her surprise, turned to Angela, only now seeming to fully notice her. “I know you too! You're Mercy from Overwatch!”

“Ex-Overwatch.” Angela automatically corrected her. “We were disbanded years ago.”

“I know...” Eleanor's face briefly fell before lighting up right again. “But you're still going around all over the world helping people. You're my hero, even without Overwatch!”

“Oh. Thank you.” Angela was much less used to receiving these kinds of compliments, to having fans, than D.Va and probably some other members of Overwatch new and old. Even back then she had preferred to stay out of the public eye, and as a medic her task had never been as glamorous or 'cool' to the public eye as the combat personnel, who got to shoot a lot of 'baddies' and pose dramatically with saved children and the like.

But Angela wasn't doing what she was doing for the glory or the thanks, but because it was the right thing to do; Angela could, so she all but had to. “I'm just doing what I can.” Even though it was still nice to be appreciated every now and then.

“You're helping lots and lots of people.” Eleanor gave Angela a wide smile. “You're a real hero. And when I grow up, I want to become a doctor too!”

“My, are you sure about this? Becoming a doctor is a _lot_ of work.” In order to finish her degree as fast as possible, Angela had all but sacrificed her private life and free time for several years. Yet in the end she couldn't help but feel it had been worth it. But still “That line of work is not for everyone.”

“I know.” Eleanor answered with an adorable pout of indignation. “That's what Mommy says too. But I _want_ to help others when I grow up, just like you.”

“Well, if you're sure about this, I can only wish you the best of luck. I'm sure you'll make a great doctor some day.” And to a point, Angela really meant it; of course she had no way of knowing for sure, but to her Eleanor seemed earnestly determined, which would be something she would need; willpower and hard work could achieve almost everything.

“You really think so?” If that was possible, the girl's smile grew even bigger as she drew Angela into a hug too. “That's so nice of you!” After a moment Eleanor let go “Say, can I have your autograph too?”

“Of course. Though I'm afraid I don't have anything to sign.”

“You should totally sign that article I did too.” Hana threw in “Then it's gonna have two autographs on it and be twice as awesome.”

“You'll do that?” Eleanor beamed “That'd be so great! Can you write your catchphrase too? Heroes never die!” Smiling at the girl's imitation, Angela took a pen, which she – along with a small notebook – always carried, if for distinctly different reasons than Hana, out of her bag.

 _Heroes never die_. Unlike some others' like Reinhardt, Tracer or D.Va, Mercy's 'catchphrase' as it were, had originally been something she'd said only a few times, but for some reason or the other, some viral video, followed shortly by Overwatch PR, had latched on to it and simply made it into the medic's signature line. Then again, it wasn't like she took any real issue with that, if anything, it was occasionally convenient; Angela knew very well there was more to healing than physical wounds, and by now this line had become something of a symbol, and she would gladly embrace 'her' catchphrase if it meant the mere mention of the words could be enough to return hope.

Or bring joy as the case might be. “'Helden sterben nicht. Angela Ziegler a.k.a. Mercy.' There you are.” Angela had long since noticed her signature would be somewhat fancified and with more flourish than usual, but that was probably what put a 'signature' apart from merely writing your name, wasn't it?

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Eleanor looked like she was about to cry from joy, and Angela patted her head with a warm smile.

“There, there. You're welcome, sweetie. …But don't you think it's time you returned to your mommy? She keeps looking over here, and I think she's worried you might be getting on our nerves.”

“But I'm not!”

“You're not. But she has no way to tell that from over there. And besides, don't you have some cake left too?”

“Right, my cake. I guess I should go. Both of you, thank you sooo much! Bye!” With another huge smile and a wave Eleanor turned around, and Angela watched the girl hurry back to her mother, clutching the magazine the two of them had signed to her chest. When she returned her gaze to Hana, she found the teen looking at her with an amused grin.

“What is it?”

“You're _way_ smiling right now. Like, more than usual.”

“So are you.” Angela returned. “I suppose it's just nice be able to do something good for someone, especially a child.”

Hana conceded the point with a shrug, then got up and motioned for Angela to follow her, continuing their conversation as they left the café. “Heh. I bet you _totally_ made her day just now.”

“ _We_ did. She asked you for an autograph first, and it was your picture too.”

“Nah. This one's on you. I do stuff like this all the time, it's kinda part of my job. Not really yours, though.” Hana continued as she led the two of them towards the very center of the city. “But you, you _inspired_ her today.”

“Aren't you being a little overdramatic right now?”

“Not really. Did you see her eyes? That girl idolized you anyways, and then you went and told her she's gonna become a great doctor.”

“And I meant it, she seemed very determined, that alone can mean a lot.”

“Well, if you say so. I stand my point. Wouldn't even surprise me if we just witnessed the birth of one of the next generation of Over- Hey, watch it!” Suddenly a passerby came at them at a sharp pace, forcing Hana to jump to the side – and crash straight into Angela. “Jerk!” Hana glared daggers after the man before turning back to Angela. “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine.”

“Still, what an ass. I thought we'd be okay, but there's like way too many people here.”

“What were you looking for right in the town center anyways?”

“Dunno. Something interesting. Eh, whatever. Come on!” Without as much as waiting for an answer, Hana reached out, grabbing Angela's arm to pull the medic after her as she took off, weaving through the crowds of people and only slowing down once they'd left the inner city, stopping in a somewhat smaller street with only a handful of scattered passers-by. “There we go, much better.”

Suddenly Hana paused, looking down, and when Angela followed her gaze, she noticed how along the way the girl's hand had to have slipped from her arm to her wrist in a bid not to let them get separated, then yet further down, so that by this point they were proper holding hands, their fingers locked with each other.

“Hehe, oops.” Hana let go, rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish grin and a very noticeable blush as Angela coughed and quickly turned away to hide her own. However a moment later she got an idea, and in order to gloss over her embarrassment, after getting her bearings, she just started moving, Hana quickly following.

“We've been out pretty much the entire day.” Angela explained “I think we should slowly be heading back to base.”

“Yeah, guess so.”

“Although there is one more place I'd like to go first.”

“Hm? Sure, lead the way.”

* * *

The slowly increasing taste of salt in the air, and the growing sound of the waves told Angela they were on the right track even before their goal came into sight, and a short while later they stepped out between the buildings onto the mostly empty street running along the beach.

Angela took the general direction of the watchpoint, but without any real hurry, and for a few minutes they just leisurely walked along in silence until Hana spoke up. “You know, it feels kinda strange to see a beach like this for a change; it's nice though.”

“Like how?”

“Like, well, this. ...Calm, I guess.”

“I agree, there's hardly any people out anymore, it's beautiful, isn't it?”

“That's not it. I- ...Don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I grew up kind of a ways inland,” Until now, Hana in fact hadn't. “and with the kaiju Omnic swimming around, we'd hardly ever actually go to the beach, even in the summer. And MEKA headquarters are situated a bit away from the coasts too, obviously.”

“So?”

“So... almost all I'd get to see of the beach would be during sorties with MEKA. At best, if they got everyone to evacuate in time, it'd just be desolate and empty, kinda eerie. At worst, if we were too slow, well... Total destruction and everything littered with bodies, some pretty bad...”

Hana trailed off and Angela noticed how even now it – understandably – seemed to be difficult for her to talk about these experiences, and she paused in her tracks, briefly wrapping both arms around Hana to just hold the smaller girl close to her. “It's alright, _Liebling_. I'm here.”

For a split second Hana made a face, but then returned a soft smile and a low sigh. “Thanks, Angela. ...And sorry.” She gently pulled back, but not before Angela had caught a hint of the girl's perfume, some light and sweet, fruity, fragrance.

“That's nothing to be sorry about.” Angela was briefly tempted to reach for Hana's hand, but she opted to leave her her personal space as the teen turned to the side with a small frown and continued walking.

“So you say.” Angela didn't think any of this what might have been perceived as rudeness, though, she knew how much Hana hated showing anything the girl considered 'weakness', as if a single moment would somehow change everyone's opinion of her.

Then again, Angela realized how Hana had still shown her more of this, and more of herself, period, than she had anyone else. Compared to around the rest of Overwatch, when she was alone with Angela the pilot appeared far more open, and not as focused on permanently keeping up appearances.

...In a way, this was just like what they'd talked about earlier today; Hana always seemed to feel like she had to act like D.Va, but with Angela, sometimes, she would actually be just Hana. And while Angela didn't quite make this degree of distinction, she would freely admit that, even though they'd only known each other for a relatively short time, she truly enjoyed Hana's company and felt quite at ease around the younger girl.

“Hey, Angela,” There was a barely perceptible hint of an apologetic tone to Hana's voice. “Let's go and sit there for a moment, okay?”

“Sure.” Angela followed Hana to the lone bench right at the edge of the beach she had indicated, and they sat down, to see a truly stunning sunset. The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon, dyeing both the sky and the sea in various shades of deep orange and red, the few small clouds in the sky seeming to glow from within.

Admiring the view before her and enjoying the warmth of the last sunrays of the day on her face, Angela didn't notice Hana slowly inching closer to her until the girl spoke up in a soft voice. “You know... thank you.”

That one caught Angela a little by surprise. “Hm? For what?”

“For asking me along today, for being there that one time I had a nightmare and felt like shit, for bothering to get to know me closer, take your pick.”

Hana sounded unusually heartfelt and perfectly sincere, and so when she gently placed her hand on top of Angela's, their fingers lightly intertwined, the medic stopped her first reflex of pulling away and just let her. Hana’s soft touch was warm on Angela’s skin against the slowly cooling air and had something almost reassuring to it; it felt nice. “Thank you too, Hana.”

“Hm?”

“Several things. For accompanying me today, for doing your best to stop me from overworking myself – against my fierce resistance –, for expanding my horizons in ways I never even would have imagined,” _for just being you,_ “choose whichever.”

“Heheh.” Hana giggled “Aren't we two a bunch of softies. But... I really had a ton of fun today.”

“So did I.” They both just sat there, silently enjoying the moment and each other's company as they watched the sun slowly sink beneath the horizon, until finally it had all but vanished, and a sudden gust of wind made Angela shiver. “It is getting a bit cold. What do you say we return to the base?”

“Yeah.” Hana got up, taking Angela's hand to help her up too, then giving it a gentle squeeze before pulling away. “Let's go home.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: This chapter (in fact the longest yet by a decent margin) featuring: Embarrassment, cute children, Angie being in denial, sweet moments, and a bunch of references, more or less obvious (there's a really obscure one I wonder anyone will catch; hint: it's a line and surrounding scene of Hana's mirroring a story about a real life celebrity of the 20th century). Also a lot of artistic license, since I've never been to Gibraltar, nor an arcade (I don't think my country ever had a lot of those). And again with a shoutout to /u/ for (parts of) the inspiration for this one, as well as collective proofreading (one anon in particular, by the name of 'bruhxism').
> 
> Surprise, I'm still alive. This chapter took an inordinately long time for a bunch of reasons, including real life (who needs that stuff, am I right?), various video games coming out (in order: Destiny Rise of Iron, Pokémon Sun/Moon, Tales of Berseria, me actually getting Overwatch in a sale, Nier: Automata (which I can only recommend, even if you haven't played the first one, it's an incredible game) and now Mass Effect Andromeda and Destiny's Age of Triumph), and writer's block/lack of inspiration, sorry for the long wait. But also a thank you for the continued kudos and comments, those are what kept me motivated, and they really mean a lot to me.
> 
> Anyways. The usual, give me some feedback/criticism, as well as any suggestions/ideas for stuff you'd like to see in the future, preferably somewhat elaborate ones (on the caliber, or in the shape of, a typical /u/ greentext), since I seem to be better at writing than coming up with ideas of my own. Something something, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed.
> 
> Peace out


	6. Rubicon/Green Eyes

Hana couldn't sleep. That in itself was nothing new; even after she'd started spending some of her free time with Angela and it kept getting better, sometimes her sleep would still be uneasy. So now she was shifting between restlessly turning and lying still staring at the ceiling, that was slowly starting to just slightly seem like something resembling 'home', maybe, as she waited for sleep to return to her.

But it didn't. Instead Hana's thoughts began drifting, as usual skipping all over the place, before returning to the same subject they were wont to the last few days. Mercy ...Angela. In particular the night Hana had been roused by her nightmares and the medic had found and comforted her. Hugged her...

What of it? Hana got plenty- ...Actually, no. The last time she'd had any meaningful physical contact had been when her parents had hugged her goodbye at the airport. Until Angela... Was that it? That was probably it. Loath to admit as she was, Hana was at least a little homesick, which of course would show itself at night more than any other time; and apparently that was why her subconscious was latching on to the one person that had made any effort to care for her since she'd gotten here.

 _Seriously?_ What was she expecting? Angela to keep babysitting her? No way. Get a grip, Song-Hana. D.Va didn't need anyone, don't be silly.

...Just too bad that figuring out where those thoughts were coming from didn't actually _do_ anything about them, so Hana was left awake, her thoughts trailing off and on and off and on and always running in circles returning to Angela.

Looked like she wasn't getting any sleep any time soon. With a sigh Hana got out of bed, briefly considering some video game, but she wasn't really awake enough for that, so she left her room, maybe a midnight – or more like 3 AM – snack would help.

Hana was still learning the exact layout of the base, so she had stop and check the signs a few times, but other than that she silently made her way to the kitchen, lost in thought- until the sound of a familiar voice called her out of her reverie. “Haha, did she really do that? Just what did that girl _think_ was going to happen?”

“That's what I told her. One of these days Tracer will seriously get herself hurt, Rewind or no.”

That was Soldier:76 talking to Angela. Yet instead of just walking past the two, something made Hana pause before sliding into the next corridor, doing her best Metal Gear impression as she pressed herself against the wall.

“Have a little faith, Jack. Despite how she sometimes acts, Lena does know what she's doing. And besides, in our line of work, you can never be certain, there is always the risk of ...something happening, going wrong. You and I both know that well enough.”

Just then the two walked past Hana without either taking notice of her, the former Strike Commander even now wearing his visor and mask, while Angela was in more casual clothes, without her labcoat for a change. And where Soldier was keeping his usual gruff demeanour, Angela was smiling, looking perfectly at ease; well, she would, after all Angela and the Commander were colleagues from the time of the original Overwatch way back.

...Yet something about the scene rubbed Hana the wrong way. Like Soldier's body language, or how he was walking entirely too close to Angela, almost brushing against her shoulder with every other step.

“Just all too well. That's why we're so fortunate to have you with us again, Angela.” As he put a hand on Angela's shoulder, something flared up inside Hana and she barely bit back the angry sound that had been forming in the back of her throat.

...The hell? What was that for? Fortunately neither of the two noticed anything, leaving her sight just moments later and Hana turned around, swiftly but silently rushing off in the other direction.

She wasn't really paying attention where she was going, or if she was even still headed for the kitchen – until, rounding a corner, she walked right into someone else, sending Hana to the floor amidst a bunch of fluttering papers. “Ow!”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry. So sorry.” Hana looked up to find Mei standing in front of her with a concerned expression, clutching a stack of books and folders as she held out her other hand to help Hana up. “Are you alright? I'm sorry.”

“I'm fine.” Hana briefly rubbed her backside before starting to quickly gather the scattered papers, some data or research most likely, judging from the glimpses of tables and diagrams she caught. “And that was my bad, I wasn't paying attention.”

“Thank you.” Mei accepted the papers, storing them in one of the folders, then paused, eyeing Hana. “D.Va, are you okay?”

“Just Hana.” The girl half-automatically corrected her, noticing how she'd gradually stopped being so insistent on her callsign outside of missions, she could probably blame that on Angela's influence too. “And I'm fine. I just fell on my butt, no big deal.”

“That's not what I meant. You seem... upset, is something bothering you?”

“No- ye- maybe... I don't know.” Hana finally conceded with a frown.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Mei instantly offered, but Hana shook her head.

“Nah. It's... something personal.” That wasn't even quite untrue; and while Hana did appreciate Mei just wanting to help, the two of them weren't that close that she'd be willing to confide ...whatever it was to the climatologist either.

“Oh, I see. ...Well, I need to-” Mei briefly interrupted herself with a rather adorable yawn “-go and look at this data before I fall asleep completely, so... But, you know what always helps me when I'm feeling down? A bit of chocolate.” Hana unconsciously nodded, something sweet did sound like just the thing right now. “I still have a bunch left in my drawer in the fridge in the kitchen.” Mei continued “You can take some if you'd like to.”

“I can?” Hana returned Mei's friendly smile with a grin. “Sounds like a plan, maybe it's gonna help. Thanks, Mei.”

“You're welcome.”

Hana took a moment to regain the direction to the kitchen, then turned to leave. “So, uh, have fun with your research.”

Mei giggled. “I will. Good night, Hana.”

...

There it was, as evidenced not only by the name, but also the hearts and stylized snowflakes drawn on the sign; Hana opened the drawer to find like half a dozen bars of various kinds of chocolate, some labelled in Chinese. And not to sound mean or anything, but this probably did explain Mei's figure a bit – though it _was_ a nice figure, if one was into that.

Mei hadn't specified how much Hana could take, but she didn't want to seem too greedy, so she only took some of the ones that looked locally bought, a bit of light, dark and one with nuts each, tearing a bit off a wrapper to hold it without getting her fingers all sticky.

Turning off the lights and leaving the kitchen, Hana continued slowly wandering the silent base, eating the chocolate, and though it did make her feel a little better, she still couldn't figure out just what had annoyed her in the first place, which in turn was just as annoying. Not paying too much mind to her steps, Hana finished the chocolate, stuffing the wrapper in her pocket, then paused when she noticed she'd ended up atop a staircase in front of a door outside. ...Why not? With a shrug she pushed the door open, stepping out onto a small rooftop holding some antenna array.

Quietly closing the door behind her, Hana was suddenly engulfed by darkness, her eyes taking several moments to adjust to only the pale light of a crescent moon, the outside of the base being surprisingly sparsely illuminated – probably for good reason, though.

To Hana's left and behind her was the majority of the base, both open and inside the rock, in front of her, some part of the outside installations, but to her right the rooftop immediately lead into a cliff falling straight into the sea, the water mostly calm and reflecting the moon and numerous stars visible through the wisps of clouds drifting past. It was kinda pretty, though at the same time felt just a little too pale and... sterile for Hana's liking.

And cold; Hana shivered, clearly under-dressed in just a flimsy t-shirt and shorts, and hugged her arms around her chest. However the cold and the silence broken only by the waves' regular sound also had something calming to them and Hana felt herself wind down a little, probably aided by her tiredness catching up with her.

But it did allow her to try and figure out just what had ticked her off so much from a slightly more detached perspective. Okay, so maybe she'd felt a little homesick for a moment, but that didn't explain...

Angela. Or more like how Soldier:76 had been kinda touchy-feely with her just now. But how was that Hana's concern? Angela was an adult woman – far more adult than her, as Hana had to admit with a smirk – and could fully well decide herself who she flirted with. ...Except she hadn't actually; at best Morrison had, but even that might have been totally innocuous.  From what Hana had heard, several of the core members of the old Overwatch had been as close as family. Then knowing all this, why the heck had this little scene ...angered her so much?

Hana could only really think of one thing that might warrant this kind of reaction, but it wasn't like she- ...But what _if_ she was? If she'd been jealous? Of course that didn't change that she'd pointlessly overreacted, but, for Hana to even _be_ jealous, to have a reason, didn't that mean she had to- to...

 _Well, crap._ But as with any good revelation, once Hana had realized, she just couldn't ignore it, this whole night suddenly set in a new light: Her thinking of Angela hadn't been born of homesickness at all, and while that made her moment of jealousy no less stupid, it had clearly been because... Hana _so_ had a crush on Angela.

...What was she thinking? A woman – barely – old enough to be her mother, and so much more experienced and mature than her, and while that mostly didn't matter to either of them, there were moments when that difference would show. Like this one. There probably was no way that Angela would go for someone that much younger.

Or was she? But even if Angela actually didn't mind such an age gap, _and_ she wasn't dating anyone right now – which she'd never given any indication of that Hana knew, but that didn't have to mean anything either –, who was to say she even was into girls? Sure she'd reacted quite nicely to some of the teasing Hana did from time to time, just for fun or to play over her own, in retrospect more justified, embarrassment, but maybe the medic just was someone who easily got flustered, perhaps precisely _because_ she wasn't interested in girls that way.

A sudden gust of wind made Hana flinch and shiver, interrupting her train of thought. She probably should go back inside to continue her brooding, lest she catch a cold; and she still was dead tired, so right now a warm bed was looking more attractive than ever.

As Hana silently returned inside and made her way back to her room, her thoughts just as quickly returned, but just started running in circles, listing all the things that might not work out, and how this just couldn't going to end well.

 _This is stupid, get it together._ Hana was starting to grow annoyed with herself again, and briefly thought of looking for Mei to come back to her earlier offer and ask her for advice, but changed her mind just as quickly. The one person Hana even would have considered talking to about this was Lúcio, the two having quickly become good friends after the DJ joined Overwatch, their relatively close age, status as celebrities, and – funnily enough – being huge fans of each other's work making it very easy for the two to relate. But he currently was on an away mission, and Hana didn't feel like having this conversation on the phone, and besides she could pretty much imagine Lúcio's answer too, telling her to be true to her feelings and just go for it. But there was no way it was that easy...

...Or was it? Somehow the mere thought of the DJ managed to have something a little uplifting and encouraging to it – a fact that he'd just love, no doubt –; it wasn't really like D.Va to give up so easily, now was it? Just because there were so many ways it could not work out, that was no reason not to try. _Never tell me the odds._

Because Hana knew she had… she was in love with Angela, and she wanted to keep spending time with her. Well, she wanted, wished for, more than that, but she didn't have to rush it either. Worst case, she'd just be stuck with an unrequited crush until she finally managed to move on, hopefully preserving her and Angela's friendship, but even then wasn't it better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all? Lúcio would probably say so too, though Hana had the feeling he'd taken that quote from somewhere else.

And besides, it absolutely wouldn't hurt to try and check her chances before admitting defeat, because if she had a shot at all, Hana was gonna win this. As they said: Challenge accepted.

* * *

The next morning Hana stayed in bed a bit longer than usual – even factoring in her nightly walk –, because even if she wasn't gonna brood or doubt herself or her feelings anymore, she still had to think. She'd had been in a few – okay, precisely two – relationships before, but both had been far less complicated, though neither had lasted very long for different reasons. And while those reasons really wouldn't apply here, it still wasn't as easy as just walking up to Angela and confessing to her, no matter what Lúcio might claim to the contrary.

This was gonna take a little more work and subtlety, but if there was one thing Hana was good at, it was strategy, she wasn't the Starcraft world champion for no reason. Even if this would be closer to a dating sim than an RTS, the principle was not so different.

Hana could always figure out the little details like if Angela was dating someone later down the line, she just had to find the right opportunity to ask without being too obvious. In the meantime she could just... amp up the teasing a bit, keep dropping some more hints, Angela was a brilliant scientist after all, surely she'd catch on in time.

Still it felt like something was missing. Hm... what would it take for Hana to notice someone? How would she want to be ...'courted'? The most obvious answer, video games, were right out, even if Angela was showing legit interest in learning about them, they very clearly were Hana's domain still. Ask her out? That wouldn't quite work either; their day off in the city last week had been a ton of fun, but it hadn't quite felt like a 'date' either, and Hana wasn't sure how to she'd go about making it feel that way without spelling it out with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. A present? Flowers? Either too unsubtle or easy to misconstrue, not to mention cliché.

 _Come on, be a bit more creative._ Hana was a famous gamer and mech pilot, Angela a world-class surgeon and combat medic, and they were both members of the reformed Overwatch; neither of them was quite 'ordinary', were they, so why should ordinary dating stuff work?

Then what... “ _Winston speaking.”_ the intercom suddenly announced. “ _There is a new mission. All Agents cleared for active duty please be at meeting room B for assignment and briefing in ten minutes sharp. Winston out.”_ That actually suited Hana perfectly, she hadn't really gotten to stretch her legs in almost two weeks, and even test flights and target practice in MEKA never quite reached up to the real thing. And even better, this actually gave her an idea about Angela too...

Getting dressed and freshened up at record speed, Hana just barely got to the meeting room in time. There would be time to grab some breakfast on the go, the mission couldn't be that urgent, or they would've been called straight to the hangar.

Truth be told, Hana didn't pay too much attention to the briefing, something about an old Overwatch prototype that apparently had to be recovered right away since Talon had somehow gotten wind of it. Morrison wanted to lead the mission, because he considered like everything related to the old Overwatch his personal problem somehow. Hana volunteered practically right after, arguing that she hadn't been on a mission for far too long, and that the team needed some heavy support, so with Reinhardt still benched after an injury, she was the best option. Always bring a tank, that was like team comp 101.

After the team was filled up by Tracer and McCree – none of which Hana minded, they were both perfectly capable and rather entertaining during boring flights – Winston dismissed everyone, and Hana quickly took off with a grin and a cheerful wave to Angela, an idea slowly taking shape.

As Hana threw on her pilot suit, stopped by the kitchen to grab an apple, a sandwich and some chocolate, along with a bottle of energy drink, for breakfast, then quickly ran MEKA through diagnostics, she couldn't entirely suppress an excited grin, though this time her normal pre-mission giddiness was supplemented by some more excitement about her plan.

And it was a pretty simple plan too. Obviously she was gonna stream the mission, and even though Angela tended not to watch her live because the medic always had something to keep her busy, Hana usually managed to get her to take an evening off and watch the recording together. So all she had to do was make this one especially impressive, maybe do some fancy flying, then close the stream with a special dedication to Angela that made her intent rather clear, while maintaining just enough deniability that she could play it off if she had to, though that more so to keep her fans off her back.

Although... given Angela's stance on combat, it probably would be wise to not just go for bodycount, but instead try and protect the others and play the objective like a good little teamplayer. Not quite her style, D.Va always was more of a solo act, but nothing she couldn't handle either.

“D.Va, are you ready? We leave in two minutes.”

“Yeah, just a sec.” Ignoring Morrison's grumble about 'that's 'just a sec, _sir_ '', Hana finished the final check, and after – of course – all diagnostics came back green, jumped into MEKA, balancing her lunchbox on one of its arms as she walked the mech into the loading bay of the Orca. “Good to go, let's do this.”

* * *

“Doktor Ziegler, there is a medical emergency.” Athena's computerized voice was almost completely measured and factual, yet the words made Angela all but jump up from her desk, the papers she'd been working on forgotten in a heartbeat.

“What happened?” Even though her voice was still calm, it was just as urgent as Angela immediately fell into doctor mode.

“The away team just called in, they're on their way back, but there has been a severe injury.” Angela recalled the mission briefing from this morning: Suspected Talon activity near an abandoned Watchpoint; recon and possibly combat, but no major enemy firepower expected; Jack leading the small strike team consisting of Lena, Jesse, and Hana volunteering as the heavy support.

“...Who is it?” Obviously she didn't want to consider any of her companions being seriously hurt; yet Athena's answer was the one part of her had secretly been dreading the most and it made Angela feel as if suddenly there was a massive block of ice forming in her stomach.

“It's D.Va.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no, it's a cliffhanger. But don't worry, I'm well aware of my ...spotty productivity (by which I mean glacial), so the next chapter is already completely written and in beta right now (on that note, once more a shoutout to bruhxism for proofreading); I'm aiming to post it one week from now if it's done, so check back then for the stunning continuation! (or something)
> 
> The premise of this chapter was inspired by a comment on /u/ ages ago, and the title is a Shakespeare reference (that means I'm educated, right? ...right?) along with another one that might become more apparent with the next one. Also featuring more references to a bunch of stuff (but if I list them all, it'd be to easy).
> 
> This chapter feels pretty introspective, with little dialogue, but I hope I managed the flow well enough. It also marks the first personal appearance of any other character (yes, Winston showed up in chapter 4, but he was just a narrative device at that moment, I could have done without him), if anyone keeps returning I might tag them properly.
> 
> Also, all that stuff about feedback/criticism, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed (I should just start copy-pasting one of these). See you in the next one.
> 
> Peace out


	7. Rubicon/Gravity

“ _Everyone, watch your flanks! We're being surrounded.”_

“ _Don't worry, we're gonna be fine.”_

“ _D.Va, you're out of position, fall back!”_

_Pew pew pew. One down_

“ _Relax,_ Dad _, I got this!”_

“ _It's_ Commander _Morrison-”_

“ _Everybody, take cover! Activating self-destruct sequence! Nerf This!”_

_Boom. Multi-kill_

“ _...See? Area cleared. Gg easy.”_

_*Sigh* “Hostiles down. We- D.Va, behind you!”_

_Bang_

* * *

Hana slowly awoke, opening her eyes to the sight of an unfamiliar ceiling. She clearly wasn't in her room at the base, but the ceiling was clean white, even if the brightness hurt her eyes a little, and she was lying in a soft, warm bed, so that was a start.

As her senses gradually returned, Hana noticed a regular beeping sound emanating from her side, and an odd tightness around her midriff, and lastly the faint but still distinct scent of disinfectant permeating the room. She was still pretty tired, so she really just wanted to turn on her side and stay asleep like half an hour longer, but the incessant beeping, which seemed to have increased in speed a little since she'd noticed it, was just too loud and distracting.

But as she tried to find the source and turn it off, something held Hana's left arm, and when she shoved aside the thick blanket a little, she noticed that her wrist had been loosely tied to the frame of the bed – as well as the thin plastic tubes inserted into her arm, fastened by adhesives. _Oh, right._ Everything suddenly came rushing back to her. Then that sound would be a heart monitor, and odds were it'd already registered she was awake and notifie-

As if on cue the door of the room all but flew open and Angela entered, wearing her usual labcoat, her expression showing equal parts worry and relief. “Hana, you're awake!”

“...Hey, doc.” Hana's voice sounded coarse and weak as Angela pulled up a chair to sit right next to the bed, reaching for Hana's right hand after but a moment of deliberation; somehow the medic's slender, slightly cool fingers atop her hand had something stabilizing, comforting to them.

“How are you feeling?” Angela's voice was calm and professional, but Hana also caught the undercurrent of worry the woman failed to entirely hide.

“Kinda like shit.” Now that she was starting to fully wake, Hana also registered how sore and weak she felt, her upper body in particular, her head was still a little hazy, and there was a vague, dull pain in her right side and all over her back. “I'm on some pretty bad painkillers, aren't I?”

“Yes. And it's best it stay that way for the moment, but we can start slowly lowering the dose now.” Angela made a quick note on the clipboard she'd taken from the foot of Hana's bed. “Do you remember what happened?”

“We were out on a mission, and I used MEKA's self-destruct to blow up a bunch of guys, and I think a grenade or something went up pretty close to me, and then... then I woke up here.”

“I see. According to Jack- Commander Morrison it was some small grenade thrown by an agent that managed to dodge your blast. You took most of the hit to your back, but Jack used his biotic tech to immediately stabilize you, and you actually made it back to the shuttle on your own, though you probably were in shock, so you may not remember that part too clearly.”

“Yeah, something like that.” Now Hana could at least vaguely recall as much, she'd made some dumb joke about her injury that the Commander hadn't been amused about at all, but after that...

“On the flight back you suddenly collapsed and your condition worsened rapidly from an internal bleeding Jack hadn't managed to stop completely. B-by the time they got you to the base you were almost-” Angela broke off, her voice almost cracking, and she took a long, slightly shaky breath to steady herself before continuing. “For a few seconds you actually were clinically dead. I-I managed to save you, but you still slept for more than three days. I... everyone was worried about you-”

The medic fell silent once again, leaning forward to carefully wrap her arms around Hana, the girl returning the embrace with her free arm as good as she could. “I'm just glad you're okay, _Liebling_.”

“Yeah, thanks to you, doc. You're a real lifesaver. Literally.” Hana giggled, but when she shifted a little, a sudden spike of pain in her back made her wince.

A few moments later Angela let go, pulling back and making a few more notes on the clipboard. “You need to rest a lot more. I'll tell everyone else you're awake, but should I allow visitors in yet?”

“...Not right now, I'm freaking tired. Not like I just slept three whole days.”

Angela chuckled. “Very well. I'll make sure you get some food, and hopefully we can take out that IV soon too. There's a button on the headboard, call me if there's anything else you need.”

“Will do.”

Angela got up, putting back the clipboard, then lightly brushing her hand over Hana's forehead before turning to leave. “Please get well soon, Hana.”

...

A little later Tracer – wearing an old-timey nurse costume, wherever the heck she'd gotten that from – brought Hana a light lunch, which she practically devoured within minutes, only then noticing how hungry she'd felt, as well as her phone and handheld console, with best regards from Angela. The medic's forethought made Hana smile; she still hated being stuck in a bed, but at least this way she wouldn't be _too_ bored, and she could update her fans about her absence.

Later that evening Angela returned to check up on Hana again and take out her IV line, prescribing her some pills – painkillers obviously, and antibiotics – instead. The medic wound up staying the evening to keep her company, and even though her head was still somewhat hazy and she couldn't recall much of their conversation by the next morning, Hana clearly remembered falling asleep with Angela watching over her by her side.

...

The next morning, Hana was feeling significantly better – apart from the pain in her back of course –, and she was downright itching to finally get out of her bed. She took her antibiotics, but after closely reading the leaflet wound up only taking half the amount of painkiller Angela had recommended; she'd take a little pain if it meant her head would be clearer too, and it wasn't like Hana couldn't take more later if she had to.

When she told Angela as much when she came to check up on her, the medic just smiled. “I see. I figured you might do this; it's okay, but if your pain gets too bad, _do_ take more, there's no need to try to act tough or anything.”

“Pff, I can take it. It's just a flesh wound, how bad can it be?”

Angela's face briefly darkened before she continued. “It was quite bad, you shouldn't make light of your injuries. Either way. In a normal hospital, I'd keep you here a few days longer for sure, but since you'll be at base until I clear you for missions again, I think I can let you return to your room, you're already starting to go stir-crazy, aren't you?”

“Kinda.” Hana stretched her arms over her head as far as she could before the pain made her stop. “I hate sitting around doing nothing. Also my room is much nicer.”

“That too.” Angela smiled. “Before I let you go, I'd like to change the dressing on your wounds. Now that you're awake, do you want to, um, get some underwear beforehand?”

Hana only now fully registered that she was wearing nothing but a baggy hospital gown ...okay, and panties at least. That meant that Angela had most definitely seen- “Um, yeah, that'd be nice.” She failed completely stop the blush spreading on her face, even as she noticed that so did Angela.

“Do you want to try to go to your room yourself, or should I-”

“I wanna walk myself, I really need to move a bit.”

“Very well. Then come on. Carefully...” Taking the hand Angela offered her, Hana gingerly sat up straight, pushing her legs over the side of the bed before slowly and deliberately standing up.

For a moment she wavered, and could already see Angela preparing to catch her, and a small part of her would have liked that, almost tempting her to fall just so the doctor would hold her, but that would have been pretty dumb. Instead Hana steadied herself, taking a small shaky step, and then another, before flashing Angela a wide grin. “See? I'm just fine.”

“That's good. But don't overexert yourself.” Keeping a deliberately slow pace, Angela led Hana to her room, where the teen just grabbed the first bra she found in her drawer, a plain dark green one, her favourite pink shorts and a baggy t-shirt. Hana quickly put them on, in the process noticing how the bandages wrapped around pretty much her entire stomach and then some, from just under her solarplexus almost all the way to her hips, before they returned to the med wing, but entered a normal treatment room instead.

While Angela prepared new bandages and put on sterile gloves, Hana left the hospital gown over the back of a chair, then took off her shirt, turning her back to Angela and ultimately deciding not to use the opportunity to tease her a bit, the situation just didn't feel appropriate at all. Angela quickly and routinely took off the bandages, and from the corner of her eye Hana could make out a decent amount of red staining the fabric. _Jeez._ Just how badly had she gotten hurt?

As Angela applied a new dressing to the wound Hana could have sworn for a moment her fingers were unusually shaky, but by the time she wrapped a new bandage around Hana's midriff – her ticklishness making it quite hard for her to stay still under the medic's touch – Angela's hands were the very picture of calm again, as was to be expected from a top-class surgeon. But still...

“How is this? Not too tight?” Angela asked and Hana carefully flexed and turned her upper body as far as she could.

“It's fine.” Not like she was gonna do any serious moving any time soon.

“Good. If possible you want to keep doing some light movement to keep in shape, jogging for example. But obviously no stronger exercises, especially no heavy lifting.”

“Do I look like a pink-haired Siberian to you?”

“No, but it's always better to be safe than sorry. Both in my time with Overwatch and before that, the amount of times I've had injuries reopening or worsening because people seemed to lack a bit of common sense is astounding. Please don't add to that number.” For whatever reason Angela seemed legitimately worried, so Hana chose not to make a dumb comeback for once and just nodded.

“Got it. Anything else?”

“No. You're cleared to go. I need to finish the report about your injury, but after that I'm free. Thankfully no one else got injured past a few scrapes.”

“Well, that's something, right?” Hana allowed herself a grin; this was definitely good to hear. “By the way, I just noticed you never really told me what _my_ damage was.”

Angela briefly froze, taking several seconds to answer. “It was pretty bad.”

“I figured _that_ out on my own. Can't you be more specific? ...What's wrong?” Hana asked a few moments later as Angela visibly hesitated. “There wasn't like any side effects you forgot to mention, right? I won't have scales growing on my back or anything, right? Though that could be kind of badass too...”

“That's not it. Just... I'm sorry, I'm being incredibly unprofessional.”

“Huh? What's wrong?”

“You know there's a reason normally doctors aren't supposed to treat their own family members or close friends?”

“Um, yeah. Stuff about their judgement or something.”

“Yes, that too. I deeply care for just about any of my comrades in Overwatch, old and new. Yet I take it on me to treat all of you. _Because_ of that I take it on me to treat all of you.” Angela's conviction was plainly obvious and Hana could tell the medic would stand alone against the entire world if she felt she had to (except she'd never be alone, Hana would always be by her side).

But the very next sentence Angela's voice sounded so infinitely more vulnerable. “And I would never have it any other way, but... I'm still human, Hana. I will heal all of you as often as it takes, and I _will_ do it properly. But seeing the people I care for hurt... it tears at me, every single time. I can keep it out of the treatment room, Mercy is always focused on the task at hand. But after that, Angela can't help but worry about her comrades, friends. Seeing any of you injured, it truly hurts and-” Angela broke off, her voice failing.

“Whoa.” Hana had not expected _that_. “Easy there, doc.” Without really thinking she stepped closer to Angela, ignoring the small sting in her back as she pulled the woman into a hug, which she returned after a moment's surprise. “I'm fine. ...Well, I'm alive at least. Thanks to you. Everything's gonna be alright, got it?”

For several moments Angela just tightly held Hana close to her, as if she wanted to shield the girl from any that would dare harm her, and she couldn't help but catch the scent of the medic's perfume over the hint of disinfectant that never seemed to let go of her, a light and kind of flowery, airy aroma. “...Got it. And again, I'm sorry.” Angela let go of Hana and pulled back a little, but still stayed quite close to her.

“There's nothing to be sorry about. I didn't realize this was so hard on you, I mean, I slept through most of it. But it's okay, I can just read the report-”

“No, no, I'll be fine.” Angela shook her head. “You _are_ alright now after all.” She took a deep breath as if to brace herself, her gaze quickly flickering over what had to be the half-finished injury report on her desk.

“As I said, you got hit by the blast of a grenade. Jack stopped the superficial bleeding, but you would have required surgery to remove some of the shrapnel anyways.”

“Yeah, his healing magic isn't nearly as good as your healing magic.”

“It's not magic.” Hana's remark at least coaxed a small smile from Angela as she continued. “And in fact Jack's Biotic Field and my Caduceus are based on the exact same technology, his is just weaker and less finely-controlled, but also much more resource efficient. Besides, even when I heal injuries in the field I only remove foreign bodies if I have to and otherwise leave them for after the fighting.”

“Right.” Hana could very much recall the one time Angela had had to cut open her thigh after a mission to pluck out a bullet that had been lodged in there. “Internal bleeding.” She prompted the woman to continue.

“Yes. There was a piece of shrapnel in your kidney, and a larger one in your spleen. Either one must have come loose during some sudden movement and- and-”

“I almost bled to death.” Hana bluntly finished as Angela broke off again. “But you were there to save me, so all's well that ends well.”

“...I suppose.” Angela let out a long breath, yet her expression was still sombre.

“Come on, cheer up! It's gonna need a lot more than that to take me out, I'll be fine. Plus the mission was a success too, Morrison found that whatever prototype in the old Watchpoint, no one else got injured, and I took out a whole bunch of bad guys. Total play-of-the-game material right there. You should have seen me, I wonder if any other camera caught-”

“What were you thinking?” Angela's voice was almost completely flat and dangerously low, making Hana pause instantly.

“Huh?”

“What. Were you. Thinking. Out there? I saw some bits of footage, and I talked to the others. You were ignoring orders, breaking formation to charge ahead, and all around being way too reckless.”

“What?! No, I wasn't! I always fight like that.”

Angela didn't even acknowledge Hana's protest. “Were you trying to impress your stream or something?”

“Well...” Not her stream per se, but it appeared she had failed miserably either way.

“Then what were you thinking acting like this? You were out in an active battlefield!”

“You think I don't know that?!” Hana frowned. She was recovering from a pretty bad injury; why was Angela so mad at her? “What's your problem all of a sudden? It's not like the both of us never got hurt before.”

“But this time was worse. You almost died, Hana!”

“Yeah, but I didn't. And besides, that's the risk we both, all of us, live with. We wouldn't be doing what we're doing if we didn't think that risk was worth it. Don't you?”

“...Yes I do.”

“Then what's your problem?! What are you yelling at _me_ for?”

“Because you were being pointlessly foolhardy! You were endangering yourself for no clear reason other than thinking it would 'look cool' or something!”

“That's just the way I am! It never bothered you before!”

“Yes it did! And I told you before to be more careful. Every time any of you go out on a mission while I'm left here, I worry sick about you until you return! Do you not get that?”

“We're fighting a war, in case you missed it! People _will_ get hurt. But that's what you're here for, isn't it?”

“Well, yes. But I don't need you adding to that risk. You wouldn't have gotten hurt like this if you'd just thought ahead for two seconds!”

Hana really didn't want to argue with Angela like this, but she wasn't gonna let herself be attacked like that either. “Maybe I wouldn't. Or maybe I would anyways, or maybe someone else would have instead. In battle there's no way to be sure.”

“But that's _no_ reason to act the way you did!” Angela's voice was cracking, and she just barely seemed to be holding herself together. “Don't you realize you almost died?!”

“I damn well realize! And guess what? That wasn't even the first time this happened, and it might not be the last either!”

“Not if you keep being so careless it won't! Hana, if you die in this fight, there is no respawn button or 'load save'! You can't keep treating life like a game!”

“Yes I can.” Hana muttered, low enough even Angela didn't understand her. _'Cause if I don't, I don't know if I'd be able to bear it all._

“Hana, are you listening to me? I truly wish you'd be just a little more careful. The last few days were horrible. _Verdammt_ , I was so worried about you!”

“That's good for you, but why the hell do you keep acting like you're the only one who's ever worried about someone?! _I_ care about everyone here too! And I _do_ worry about them!” _About you._

“Then why won't you understand?!” Angela kept growing louder, but Hana found herself keeping up in volume, even if she knew this wasn't the best thing to do right now.

“I understand perfectly!” Hana clenched her fists, trying to keep herself from shouting. “That's _why_ I keep doing this! I'd be completely fine with streaming games all day and defending my title, and only needing your help for a bad cough or a sprained ankle, not gunshot wounds or broken bones. But we both know that's not an option!”

“I know! Even if I wish it were different. But none of that gives you a reason to act as recklessly as you did! If anything, knowing the risks, you should be _more_ careful!”

“I keep fucking telling you I know! Just as well as you do!” Part of her was telling Hana she should really back off before one of them might say something she might regret later, but by this point she didn't really care. “I've gotten hurt pretty bad before, and I've lost people dear to me before! Just like you! But just like you, I choose to keep doing this, because I believe in my reasons to fight! Because that's my _choice_!”

“Then sometimes I have to wonder if you were ever fit to make that choice in the first place!” The outright sting in Angela's words made Hana flinch and she grit her teeth before firing back.

“I damn well am! No more or less than you! Why do you keep throwing such a massive fit and treating me like a child that needs protecting, just because I got injured a bit?!”

“Because you're not seeing it! You didn't just get injured, Hana, you almost died!”

“No one lives forever, doc! So we might as well make the best out of what we got, I'm not gonna slow down just because I might get hurt a little!”

Angela looked like she was about to either hit Hana or burst into tears. “Then you're just a foolish, reckless _child_! Your checkup is finished, Miss Song, you are dismissed.”

“L-look, sorry, Angela, I-” “Get. Out.” Said without any intonation, the words somehow hit Hana harder than if Angela had been screaming at the top of her lungs.

With an angry shout Hana stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her, and rushed to her room as fast as her injury would let her, barely holding back her tears until she'd locked the door behind her, throwing herself onto her bed heedless of the new spike of pain in her back, and just screaming her sadness and frustration into her pillow.

* * *

Hana was awoken by a knock on the door and rolled onto her side as she slowly opened her eyes. How could she just fall asleep like that? Those painkillers weren't that potent, were they? She got up, sitting onto the side of her bed, when the sudden pain in her back made her wince. Speaking about painkillers...

She quickly found the sheet of tablets Mercy had given her in her pocket, taking one out and placing the rest on her nightstand, but before Hana could find water or at least something liquid to swallow it, there was another knock. “Leave me alone, Angela.”

“Ain't the doc. Open up, kiddo.” That drawl was pretty recognizable.

“McCree. What do you want?” Okay, maybe she was being a bit rude, but right now Hana couldn't quite find it in her to really care either.

“I just wanna talk. You lettin' me in or no?”

“...Alright. Just a sec.” Standing up, Hana quickly checked herself in the mirror, straightening her shirt a little bit; the whisker markings on her cheeks were all but faded – she really should look into getting some nano-tattoos – and her hair was kind of messy, but she probably could give it a pass for now.

Hana opened the door to let the cowboy in, then proceeded to finally get a glass and take her pill with some tap water, while McCree no doubt inspected her room, with her streaming setup, extra-size bed covered in plushie mascots from various franchises, and collection of posters, including an old Overwatch one Hana had gotten all members still present to sign. “Nice room ya got there.”

“Heck yeah I do.” Hana grinned, but just a moment later she realized the reason for McCree's presence and her expression fell. “Are you here to yell at me too?”

“Nothin' like that. 'm just glad you're okay.” Right. Okay, he probably was, McCree had been with her on that mission too. But still... While Hana certainly didn't dislike him – in fact she found McCree to be a very likeable person – the two of them weren't that close either that Hana would have expected him to be the first one to come check on her; her best guess for that would have been Lúcio, but right now the DJ was on an assignment somewhere in Nigeria to get in touch with a potential new candidate for Overwatch. And besides, how had McCree even known...

“Did Angela send you?”

“She didn't.” He shook his head “An’ neither did Morrison.”

Hana dropped to sit onto the edge of her bed, the pain from her back making her lightly flinch again, before she answered. “Then why are you here?”

“Fareeha asked me to. She came by the med bay earlier and heard you an' Angie argue. Says she didn't listen in, but she talked to Angie later-”

“And how is that your problem?!” Hana interrupted him with a frown. “Why can't you people just leave my stuff to me?”

“'Cause it ain't just about you, kiddo, 's about the doc too. Angie was real worried about you.”

“Yeah, but I don't get her at all!” Hana hardly noticed that she'd picked up a small plushie and started fidgeting with it. “Not like that's the first time someone got hurt like this and she had to patch them up, is it?” Even if as far as Hana could remember, hers had been the first immediate, life-threatening injury since Overwatch had been unofficially reinstated.

“Not at all. But she couldn' always save everyone either.” McCree let out a long sigh, and for a moment he seemed just that much older, kind of like Angela sometimes would too. “There's one story 'specially. May I...” He paused to reach for the chair in front of Hana's desk, and with a nod she pushed it over to him with her foot.

“Much obliged.” McCree sat in the chair, swivelling a little and leaning back as he continued. “It happened a few months after Angie had joined Overwatch, and she was startin' to learn the ropes and getting more used to combat – an' getting into arguments with the Commander and Reyes about how they should do things.” And from what Hana knew about the decline and fall of Overwatch, Angela had probably been right on the money, even then.

“There was this one agent. Callsign 'Edge', went by Ricky. Explosives expert, and a damn good one at that. Sharp kid, but reckless, and a bit of a mouth on him. Still, everyone loved him, a great guy, fun to be 'round. Got along great with everyone, but he and Angie were particularly close. No idea why, not the least 'cause he'd always keep hittin' on her.”

Hana couldn't help but briefly frown before catching herself. Why was this of all things annoying her? ...Again? Stop it. “Did they ever... start anything?”

“Don' think so. Doubt he ever really meant it, Ricky was flirtin' with just about every girl on the team – an' some of the boys. But Angie told him off pretty clear pretty quick. ...An' you didn't get this from me,” McCree briefly lowered his voice, making Hana listen up “but I heard the doc may be into women anyways.”

“Really?!” Hana just barely managed to not break into a wide grin, doing her best to keep her expression neutral. “I mean, is she?”

“'s what I reckon at least. Ricky never had a shot with Angie. But nevertheless, or maybe 'cause of that, the two were real close. Almost wanna say he was a bit like a brother to her.” Clearly important to Angela, well-liked by everyone, yet Hana hadn't heard this guy mentioned once, and McCree was only using past tense... Yeah, she had seen enough anime to know there was no way this one ended well.

McCree let out a long breath before her continued. “But then, one day... A town in Africa was hit by a disaster, half the buildings trashed, thousands dead. Of course Overwatch sent some aid, including the doc, naturally. But instead of working together with 'em to help everyone, local warlords and gangs tried to use the chaos and take over, and fer whatever reason, even Talon involved themselves. It was – pardon my French – a right clusterfuck.”

“Long story short, one thing led to another, the Commander had Overwatch show up almost full force, which of course some of the fighters really weren’t keen on, and things went downhill, fast. The last few days of the mission were all-out war between us and the government against three huge gangs, who also fought among each other ...and the remaining civilians caught in the middle, innocent women and children.” The cowboy hardly raised his voice, but his anger was still readily apparent, if at the gangs, Overwatch, or both, Hana couldn't tell.

“Then it happened. Ricky, Angie, myself an' a few others were on out way back to the camp, when we were suddenly ambushed, half a dozen thugs opening fire out of nowhere. After a bomb had gone off earlier that day, Ricky had insisted on taking point, so he took most of the fire. Poor kid never stood a chance. Later turned out they were using special Blackwatch ammo that shredded right through his armour; he was dead before the doc even got to him, there was nothing she could do.”

McCree finally paused and Hana let out a breath she hadn't even noticed she'd been holding, completely mesmerized by his story, the man really had a way with words. “Suffice to say, Angie was devastated; after we took out those thugs, she almost broke down then an' there. Somehow she kept herself together until the mission was over, an' even on our flight back she held it in. But once we were back at HQ, she just up and shut herself in her room for two days, you could hear her crying through the door.”

That had to have been pretty hard on Angela, but what was McCree getting at? “Eventually she ...moved on, you'd say but... somethin' like that stays with you forever. Every death does.”

Hana nodded. “Yeah.” So far four MEKA pilots had been killed in action while fighting the Kaiju Omnic, and Hana had known all of them, one had been a good friend. She knew she'd always remember their names, and she could recall what had ...happened to each of them with alarming clarity, those memories would be in the forefront of her mind when she was having a real bad day or trouble falling asleep. “...But what's your point?”

“'m not saying the doc ain't a strong woman, might well be stronger than the lot of us here, but she still feels just the same as we do.” Well, obviously. “Let me be perfectly blunt with you, kiddo: Angie cares about you. A lot. Maybe more than you realize.”

Sure, their slightly odd friendship had grown pretty close pretty quickly, and Hana felt more for Angela than even that... “Lemme put it that way: If someone were to hurt the doc just as bad as you were, what would you do?”

She'd be worried as hell. “I'd wreck their shit and make sure they never hurt anyone again!”

McCree smirked. “So would I. But Angie doesn't believe in payback, says revenge only breeds more revenge, an' she's probably right. So she was left with you in a coma for days, no clue when you'd wake up, imagine how she must've felt. ...How would you feel if it was her?”

Well, Hana would- _oh. ...Oh._ The realization hit her like a charging Ultralisk. How had Hana _not_ gotten that? “I really fucked up, didn't I?”

“Jus' talk to her, you're gonna be fine.”

Yeah, that was probably the best course of action. “I will.” Hana got up to carefully give the cowboy a brief hug. “Thanks for the talk, Jesse-oppa.”

“Yer welcome, kiddo.”

* * *

_Agent Richard “Edge” L. Jenkins – 18.06.2038 – 23.03.2067_

Hana hadn't even known the base had a memorial, but here it was. And more names on it than she had expected too. Over a dozen Agents, along with numerous other military personnel, as well as some office and medical staff. And a whole lot of people on one day, two of the three names at the top bearing that very same date, one she knew from both her history lessons and personal memory, even if 13-year old Hana had been right in her teenage years and not paid the whole thing too much attention back then.

History lessons aside, why had Hana even come here? McCree had only mentioned the memorial wall in passing as he'd been about to leave, but after getting dressed and freshened up, mulling over her words for way too long and then deciding to just wing it, instead of searching for Angela, Hana had been compelled to visit here first.

Thankfully no one else was around, or someone totally would have asked her what she was doing here. And they would have had a point. Sure, she knew _of_ the founders of Overwatch, had even worked with Soldier:76 – as he now wanted to be called because 'Jack Morrison is dead' – on missions, and she recognized a few more of the more well-known Heroes, but she'd never met or known any of them. To Hana these names ultimately were just that, names.

...But to Angela they weren't. Even if dating back to the time she had joined Overwatch only left a portion of the list, Angela had to have known some of these people, been friends with them, grieved for them. And not only had Hana almost gone and added to that number just because she'd had to show off, but then argued with her like a petulant child instead of taking Angela's worry at all seriously. In retrospect, the medic had probably had every right to be pissed at Hana. Hopefully she could still fix this. Briefly bowing in memory of the fallen, Hana turned to leave and find Angela.

* * *

“Angela? Are you there?”

“Fareeha. Good evening.” Angela finished filling in the row in the requisitions form before looking up. How had they managed to go through so many bandages so quickly? “How can I help you?”

“For one I wanted to ask you if you'd like to have dinner with me. You've been skipping meals again.” Angela looked to the side with a guilty expression as Fareeha mirrored her late mother's reprimanding tone with eerie accuracy.

“I know. I was just so worried about Hana.” Angela had spent more time than she necessarily cared to admit keeping a silent vigil at the girl's bed.

“I'm really glad she's better, though.” _For your sake too._ Fareeha didn't say, but Angela knew her long enough to fill that bit in for herself.

“So am I. And I'm game for dinner, give me five more minutes to finish this...”

“Actually... there's something else I wanted to talk with you about.”

“Hm?”

“Well-I... I heard you and Hana argue earlier.” Fareeha blurted out and Angela froze. “I didn't listen in or anything, but I heard you two shouting, and a bit later Hana rushed right past me on her way to her room, and...”

Fareeha trailed off and Angela let out a long sigh as she swivelled her chair around to face the younger woman, if she was going to vent to anyone it would be Fareeha anyways. “How can she be so careless!? Hana keeps treating everything like a game; it almost got her killed.”

Fareeha nodded. “But to be fair, several of us wound up in a really bad spot at some point or the other. ...Myself included.” She added with a sheepish expression. “But I don't recall that ever leading to a shouting match of these proportions.”

“But that's different! You're a professional, a trained soldier.”

“And so is Hana. She may be immature and ...unconventional at times, but she's in this, because she believes in what she does, and wants to give her all to make a difference, just like us.”

“...Well, yes. But she's-”

“That's what _you_ told me when she first joined and I was the one being sceptical. ...Are you doubting her?”

...Was she? “N-no, I- ...Do you think I overreacted?”

“I can't really say without knowing all the details but, you might have.” Angela sighed; after their argument, in hindsight she'd quickly feared as much. And despite her honesty and downright bluntness, Fareeha's assessments tended to be right on the money, another thing she had in common with her mother; Ana too had sometimes seemed to know Angela better than the medic did herself.

But at least her course of action was clear now. “I have to apologize to her.” While Angela positively did not approve of Hana's recklessness, she also would admit that – fueled by worry and a bit of tiredness – she had clearly overreacted. Some of the things she'd said _had_ been out of line.

“You really care about her, don't you?” Fareeha interrupted Angela's train of thought. “That's why got so mad at her, you were worried.”

Anger born of worry. That aptly described it. “Wouldn't you?” Angela countered. “And besides, I care – and worry – about everyone here.”

“But not like this, not in the same way. You feel something special for her, don't you?”

Angela was about to protest, but just as quickly paused. It was readily apparent just what feelings Fareeha was referring to, and the more Angela thought about it, the more the truth was just as undeniable. _I... I do._

“W-well, we're good friends, and she's still so young...” _And more than that..._ But there was no way Angela was going to admit-

“...ngela? Paging Doktor Ziegler. Angie are you there?”

“Oh?” Angela looked up, realizing that she had to have been lost in thought for several moments. “I'm sorry, I was...”

Fareeha smirked. “Yeah, you definitely need some food, and then some sleep. Come on.”

“Well, alright.”

...

Angela followed Fareeha to the kitchen, and after a simple dinner spent talking about more innocuous subjects – such as Lúcio meeting with child genius Efi Oladele in Numbani, and Mei testing an upgrade to her drone resulting in the entire workshop knee-deep in snow, much to Torbjörn's chagrin – Angela returned to her room, with the promise to Fareeha to get some sleep soon, and then she was alone with her thoughts again.

Hana. All of a sudden, it seemed almost inevitable. But... Angela had always prided herself on her rationality and level-headedness; it had to be nothing more than consequence, simple cause and effect. Yet, looking back, she didn't see any of that. All there was was a chain of memories, connecting _then_ and _now_ – connecting her and Hana.

And there truly was no denying it: The way Angela always felt when she was around the younger girl, how she enjoyed spending time with her, talking, and even the occasional teasing, just how worried she'd been about her these last few days, how Hana always managed to make her day a little brighter... all of it spoke volumes. For lack of a better word, Angela was in love with Hana.

...A girl half her age. And while she couldn't be truly called a child any more, Hana wasn't quite a woman yet either. But, how much 'younger' was she truly? Hana had made a lot of the same experiences as Angela had, even at an earlier age, and while she'd had to fight for it – just like Angela had back then –, by now she was mostly being accepted and treated as an equal, so why shouldn't she now?

But even that aside, there were still more ...practical issues. Like if Hana was even attracted to other girls at all, let alone a woman that much older than her. After all it wasn't like one could just casually ask about this, could one? 'By the way, I'm totally into women, what about you?' No way.

And Hana was so entirely different – yet so similar in some ways – from how how Angela had been at her age; while that probably was a great deal of what made her so ...refreshing, it also meant Angela just couldn't fathom the girl's feelings about her.

Worst case, if Angela were to... confess to Hana, and her feelings not requited, just what would happen? Would the pilot see her any differently all of a sudden? True, Hana was more open, more 'herself' around her than anyone else, without fear of being judged, so Angela not doing the same made her somewhat of a hypocrite, but this was different. She didn't want to endanger their friendship out of what ultimately amounted to selfishness.

Angela hadn't had a girlfriend since before she'd first joined Overwatch. After that, she'd rarely met the kind of person she would have been interested in, and even then, in light of her occupation and its hardships, Angela had just never allowed herself to ...fall in love. _Soviel dazu._

But, what _if_ Hana returned her feelings? If they... entered a relationship? What would something like this even mean for the both of them, given their situation? Overwatch didn't have any rules against fraternization – in fact a fair share of the original strike team's effectiveness had been owed to the strong personal bonds they'd quickly developed –, but still, there was such a huge gap in age and experience between them...

Then again, Angela had never shared the preconceived notion of relationships involving an age gap being inherently unhealthy or inappropriate, as long as the partners involved knew and consented to what they were getting into. And besides, in the past, had she ever cared about 'society's' or the public opinion of her or her work? But Mercy had always stood for her conviction and ideals, this was just Angela wishing to be selfish. ...What was the difference? Should there be a difference? ...If not, then just what was stopping her acting on her feelings?

 _Komm schon, gib es zu._ Angela was afraid. Afraid of how things might change between her and Hana, afraid of somehow ruining their friendship. Afraid of losing her. There were just too many variables, too many unknowns. If she could just... But she couldn't, that was exactly it. Fareeha – or Hana, for that matter – would most likely tell her that if things worked out, it would well be worth the risk, but was Angela willing to take the chance it might not?

 _...No._ The status quo was good enough, it had to. Trying to deny her feelings for Hana was pointless, Angela knew, but that didn't mean she had to act on them either. In fact a former colleague at the hospital had made her the dubious compliment that she was 'scary good' at rationalizing, internalizing or plain ignoring her own feelings – then again, said colleague had had a breakdown and left the occupation for good after failing to save a child that had been hit by a truck, so there had to be something to Angela's way of coping.

Of course, if she were to learn more about Hana's feelings, Angela would... reconsider, but for now what they had would suffice. Just friends, nothing more. It was better this way.

* * *

After finding the medbay deserted, Hana finally arrived at Angela's room, her hand just stopping centimetres away from knocking as she tried her best to calm herself and get rid of that uneasy feeling in her stomach. _...Quit stalling, coward._ Hana knocked, standing with bated breath until after a few seconds Angela answered. “Come in.”

Hana pushed open the door and all but rushed in, not looking at Angela's face and instead staring at the ground next to her feet as she took a deep breath.

“Look, I'm sorry-””Hana, I want to apologize-”

“I shouldn't have-”“Angela, I-”

Hana finally dared look up, to find a mixture of emotions reflected in Angela's expression: worry, apology, but also relief. No trace of anger. “Me first. Please.” She managed to get in before Angela could start again, and the medic nodded.

“Angela, I- I'm sorry for how I... acted before. I didn't realize how worried you actually were about me, so- I acted like a total child instead of... I-I'm...” Hana trailed off, stumbling over her own words; so much for preparing her apology ahead of time.

But Angela pre-empted her with a soft smile. “It's okay, _Liebling_. I have to apologize as well. I... overreacted, I shouldn't have gotten angry like that, and I never meant to- to doubt you or your skills. I am truly sorry.”

Looked like she hadn't fucked up after all. Hana just barely managed to contain a huge grin of relief, keeping it to a small smile instead. “You had every right to get mad, I acted like a... I- I'm sorry.” She walked up to Angela and carefully pulled her into a hug, however instead of letting go after a few moments, right now Hana couldn't help herself and kept her arms wrapped around the medic as she continued. “So, we good?”

“Yes.” Hana noted how Angela wasn't making any move to break their embrace either. “We good. _Vergeben und vergessen_.”

“Huh?”

“Forgive and forget.”

“Hm.” Hana finally pulled back, if solely for the reason that her position made it kinda impractical to talk, but she didn't fail to notice the hint of a blush on Angela's cheeks. “Isn't that saying kinda silly? I mean, forgive, obviously. But if you forget, wouldn't you just make the same mistakes again? So how about we _don't_ forget this mess, so we don't repeat it?”

“Forgive, but don't forget?”

“I know, it doesn't sound as catchy, but...”

Angela smiled warmly. “Yes, let's do just that.”

“Yeah.” Hana grinned, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from her. “Hey, you remember that cool show I got you to watch with me? The season finale aired like yesterday, and I totally slept through it, but I managed to avoid spoilers so far, so how about we see if we can find the episodes somewhere online and catch up?”

“I'd love to.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally. I'm sorry for the wait, but the chapter was just massively long (easily the longest so far), so proofreading took a little longer. Also sorry to anyone who was hoping Hana's injury would serve as the catalyst for the two to get together; I mean, it catalysed *something*, but we're not quite there yet.
> 
> Containing more references as always, and some artistic license in regards to Hana's injury/medical care (which few people would even pay special attention to, so why am I pointing it out? But on a side note, Hana doesn't necessarily have an infection, preemptive antibiotics after serious injury/surgery are common enough). Also more characters show up and actually do something. I should note that when I started this story, Ana wasn't revealed yet, so I chose to keep her being in hiding and presumed dead as the status quo for now. On the topic of headcanons Fareeha and Angela have known each other for a while and are close friends, but nothing more; and McCree is like the ultimate bro who noticed Hana has a crush and is totally rooting for her (and I hope I didn't mess up his accent too bad).
> 
> You know this bit by know, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, la-dee-da, feedback, criticism, suggestions, etc.
> 
> Peace Out.


	8. Greyscale

“Oh hey. What are you doing out here?”

“Hello and same to you.” Angela had been sitting on a bench on the outside installations, overlooking some of the base, but more so the dark cloudy sky and roiling sea, lost in thought.

“Just taking a walk before streaming; you're the one who keeps telling me that sitting for hours on end isn't healthy.”

“That I am.” Angela chuckled. “And so it is.”

“Heh.” Hana dropped onto the bench next to her. “And you?”

“Good question. I was just feeling restless, I suppose.”

“Huh. And that's how you ended up out here of all places?” Hana asked with an amused expression.

“Yes. I went for a walk, just like you.” If a rather long one, covering a good portion of the base inside and out over the course of a good half hour. “...There will be a storm soon.” Angela continued with a look towards the sky; the electricity and tension in the air had been slowly growing the whole day and were downright palpable by now.

“Guess so.” Hana giggled. “Make it sound any more ominous, will you?”

Of course this was a common enough trope, not to say cliché, yet Angela had been feeling a certain ...unease today. But in truth it was probably just the weather and – surprise, surprise – not quite enough sleep. “Well, if you're asking like this...” Angela put on a deep foreboding voice. “The tempest that shall reach us tonight is merely to be a portent of the doom that is fast approaching. The Dark Goddess of the Deep will rise once again and subjugate the earth, the ending of the era of man draws nigh.”

Hana seemed dumbfounded for a moment before she giggled then started laughing. “Oh man, I did _not_ see that coming. Good one. But just so you know, if some evil goddess shows up tonight to subjugate mankind or whatever, I'm totally blaming you. After kicking her ass with MEKA of course.”

“Of course.” And if anything like this somehow were to come to pass, Angela would of course be standing right beside her. “Actually, that reminds me... I don't think I ever just asked this directly, but, Hana, why did you join MEKA?”

“Hm, backstory time?” Hana tilted her head before shrugging. “Sure. I guess... I always liked playing video games, and when I was like 14 or so I started streaming just for the lulz and when it turned out I was really pretty good at them, some friends talked me into signing up for a local tournament and I kinda worked my way up and the rest is history.”

“But it's not. You could easily have kept streaming and playing in tournaments, led a comfortable, safe life. Yet you chose not to. What made you join MEKA?”

“Why did _you_ join Overwatch?” Hana returned, but Angela shook her head.

“You first, dear.”

“Hm...” Hana took several moments to answer. “I got the offer from MEKA, along with several other top players, and I guess most of just were like 'why not?'. They did a pretty good job of selling the whole thing to us like a game.” She added in a more sombre voice.

“Yet you stayed. Why?”

“Why not?”

“That's not an answer.”

“Because I... could. Can. Fight the Kaijuu Omnic, I mean. Protect people.”

“Again. Why?” Angela kept pushing. “Why did it have to be you of all people?”

“Just what do you want to hear?” Hana frowned a little, pausing somewhat longer before finally, hesitantly answering. “I just... I _can_ do what I'm doing, so I should... I have to. I mean, I'm not the only one of course, and others can and do fight just like me – like us.” She made a vague gesture indicating the two of them, and probably the entire base behind them. “But I... there's so many people out there suffering from war, Talon, the Kaijuu, whatever disaster of the week, powerless to do anything against it. So if I'm in a position to fight for them, why shouldn't I?”

“Why _should_ you risk your life for some strangers you've never met and likely never will?”

“Because... it's the right thing to do. And I chose to do this, and I'm sure as hell not backing down.” Hana answered in a defiant tone, folding her arms in front of her chest, her conviction plainly obvious.

“Yes, but _why_ is it the right thing?”

“Come on, is this philosophy lesson or something?” Hana frowned at Angela's incessant questioning. “It's... It'd be a shitty thing not to. If I were living near the coast and some ugly Godzilla wannabe starts wrecking the neighbourhood, I'd want any potential mecha pilots or superheroes to come and help me too instead of being 'lol nope you're on your own'. So I gotta do the same thing. And besides, fighting for love, justice and honour – or something – is an interesting job at least, and my fans love me for it.” She added like a more mundane afterthought.

“I see.” Angela finally nodded after a few moments and Hana pouted.

“I bare my soul to you or whatever, and all I get is 'I see'?” Hana's mock indignation only served to make Angela chuckle.

“So sorry, _Liebes_. This is indeed something I got from a philosophy teacher; sometimes you have to ask a question several times until people give you the actual answer instead of what they _think_ is the answer. But, I suppose I do understand you a little more now. Thank you.”

“Good to hear.” Hana grinned. “Your turn now. Why'd you join Overwatch? How did Angela Ziegler become Mercy?”

“You make it sound so dramatic, 'D.Va'.” Angela smiled. “And I think you already know half of it. I first got to meet Jack and several others about 20 years ago, when Overwatch was at its prime, during what was mostly a publicity stunt, giving a number of students from various high-profile universities a guided tour of their HQ, more or less.”

“Huh, neat.”

“It was quite impressive to me at the time.” Especially since back then she hadn't yet been able to see the darker side of Overwatch. “That day I also met both Mei and Fareeha for the first time. I don't know how much Overwatch kept tabs on me and some of the other students after that, but the fact remains that besides me and Mei, another two or three of those later joined them too.”

“Overwatch approached me only a few months after I'd taken over as the head surgeon in a Zürich hospital, and idealist that I was, I saw the potential for both funding for my research on what would later become the Caduceus technology, and the chance to far more directly help those in need – and frankly far more in need than most of the, rather affluent and rarely in mortal danger, patients I'd get working at the hospital.”

“'Was'?” Hana echoed with a raised eyebrow.

“Come again?”

“You said you _were_ an idealist. You're not anymore?”

“At least nowhere near as much as I used to be ten years ago.” Angela answered in a darker tone. “I think by now I prefer the label 'realist'.” Even if her conviction had rarely, if ever, truly wavered, her experiences – failing to save patients, losing people dear to her, the fall of Overwatch, everything that had happened – had undoubtedly shaped Angela and her outlook.

“Occupational hazard, huh?”

“So one could say.” Both for doctors and members of Overwatch, as had shown. Even if Hana seemed just fine so far, but perhaps it was merely a matter of time, and there was little she nor Angela would be able to do against it.

“Yet you're back. And so's a bunch of others. Why you think that is?”

“I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm sure everyone has their motivations. For my part, I believe that we can learn from the past and avoid some of its mistakes this time around.” Even if that of course was no guarantee that they wouldn't make just as many new ones.

“Yeah, but why?” Hana smirked, but her expression quickly fell into a pout as Angela countered.

“Why what? I'm afraid you'll have to be a little more specific.”

“Touché.” The girl's grin quickly returned as she pondered her reply. “Okay... Why'd you return at all, after- No, wait- ...Got it. Why'd you join at all? Why was the stuff Overwatch offered not only worth it, but worth returning for? ... _Why_ do you go such lengths to dedicate your life to healing and helping others?”

“Well said.” Angela conceded with a smile and a light bow of her head. “...Blame it on my upbringing, or losing my parents the way I did, or call it just the way I am, but I believe that life is sacred. Not strictly or necessarily in a religious sense, but in that it is more precious than most everything else.”

“So...” Hana prodded, even by this point the conclusion should have been rather obvious.

“So I believe that saving lives – and by extension helping the suffering – is a worthy goal and what I strive to do in my life, both by becoming a doctor and joining Overwatch, because it's, as you put it, the right thing to do.”

“Yeah.” Hana nodded. “That sound about like what you'd expect to hear from 'Mercy'.”

“But,” Angela continued, pre-empting the most apparent follow-up question “even if you reject this underlying axiom of mine as subjective or baseless, and thus its conclusion as well, you'd still be hard-pressed to argue how war and fighting that cause nothing but death and destruction to countless innocents could in any conceivable way be a good thing.”

“I can think of a bunch of people who'd beg to differ.” Hana grimly returned, and she wasn't wrong either.

“Maybe, but most of these people simply put their own profit, wishes or ideals above others' lives. Those who would truly wage war and death purely for its own sake are thankfully far and few between.”

“Like Talon's super edgelord? What's his deal anyways?”

“Reaper? I... don't know. He's still one of Talon's bigger unknowns, along with whatever hacker they appear to have in their services.”

“I mean, he got his ass handed to him like every time he showed up, so whatever, right?”

“He's... I suppose you're right. But again, people like him are the exception. Everyone has their own reasons and motivations. And mine put innocent lives above everything else.”

“Hm... Then I've got a puzzle for you: Would it be okay to let one person die to save another life? Ten lives? A million? What if you had to pull the trigger yourself? Or that one life was yours? Or mine?”

“So this is philosophy lesson after all.” Angela's callback made Hana giggle. “But there is no one, and perhaps no 'right' answer. I believe that the value of human – and Omnic – life is immeasurable, and that lives should never be weighed against each other. Yet for that same reason I would be compelled to do just that, because the very act of not choosing is a choice already, and may be worse than either alternative.”

“So you say. But could you really, if it was someone you know? If you had to sacrifice me to save an entire city?”

Angela shook her head. “For one, in reality there will never be a situation where it's just numbers. And two, name one scenario where I'd be in a position to make that kind of choice – that doesn't come straight from the plot of some Hollywood blockbuster.” She added and Hana stopped just as she was about to answer, and after thinking for a few seconds shrugged.

“Beats me.”

“Case in point. You always have to consider not only the individuals and circumstances, but also the consequences.” To the best of one's knowledge. “Even if- ...Let me just say that I stand behind almost every decision I made, both as a doctor and with Overwatch, and believe they were the best I could have made in that situation at that time.” Though not all of them had truly turned out to be the best in the long run.

“Yeah.” Either Hana had missed the rather obvious bait for a follow-up question, or she caught Angela's just slightly warning, defensive tone, but either way she didn't pry. “Guess in the end that's really all we can ask for, isn't it?”

“...In a way, yes. But even in our line of work these huge moral dilemmas are thankfully rare.”

“You're gonna jinx it, you know.”

“Hana, please. You know that superstition is confirmation bias at best.”

“Yeah, maybe. But you're not paranoid if there really is a monolithic embodiment of pure evil out to get you.”

“There's not, though.”

“That we know of...” Hana said in an ominous voice, before shaking her head with a laugh. “Nah, just a bunch of jerks with guns and the edgiest minions imaginable.”

That was certainly a way to make light of Talon. “Don't underestimate them.”

“I know, I know.” Hana rubbed the still healing scar on her back. “But we're still gonna beat all of them, just you wait.”

“Hm. That would be nice.”

Both of them fell silent for a few minutes before finally Angela got up, stretching her arms and back with a small moan. “My stomach is telling me it's about time for dinner, what do you say we had inside and get some?”

“Same here, actually, let's go.”

* * *

“ _D-doctor, help me...” The tall blonde man staggers towards her, clutching his stomach, trying to stem the flow of blood from the massive wound in his abdomen, before collapsing._

_Why didn't you do anything_

_The redheaded teenager incredulously stares at the mangled stump of her arm with her remaining eye, both the other one and the hand lost to a grenade. She'll live, but be marked forever, physically and mentally._

_You could have prevented this ...saved them_

“ _Let go of me! You have to help mummy!” The small girl with tears in her eyes keep holding on to the arm of the motionless woman next to her, only letting go when she is sedated. Her mother dies before she can even be brought to the hospital._

_But you weren't enough_

_Just now the lively young woman with the cute freckled face, who showed them around earlier is lying still on the floor, her eyes blankly gazing into nothing. She'd told them she wanted to become a vet, and how she was gonna help her adorable little brother ask out a girl tomorrow._

_...Not enough_

. . .

“Angela, are you okay?” Hana nudged Angela's shoulder, making the woman flinch. “You don't look so good.”

“No, I-” Angela shook her head before letting out a sigh. “I'm sorry, I'm just tired. I didn't get nearly enough sleep tonight.”

“Figures. You were busy patching all of us up.” To underline her point Hana waved her newly bandaged arm, bearing a longish cut courtesy of some sharp bit of shrapnel, nearly dropping a bite of lunch off her fork.

“Yes, that too.” On closer inspection, Angela really wasn't looking too great, her fair skin yet a shade paler than usual and dark rings under her eyes. “And I... didn't sleep to well either.”

“Aw, that sucks. ...You still should eat something, though.” Hana added, gesturing towards the medic's almost untouched plate. “Or I will, grandpa Reinhardt's cooking is great, as always.” After still no reaction from Angela, Hana went on. “Or... if you don't wanna eat, I might just have to feed you.”

“Hana, that's- that won't be necessary.” Hana grinned as Angela blushed a little.

“You know, there's people who would do some dirty things just to have D.Va offer to feed them, you should feel honoured to get the chance for free.”

At least that served to elicit a light laugh from Angela. “Then I suppose I should be thankful for the offer, but I'll be fine.” With a small sigh she started slowly eating, Hana totally not nabbing a few more bits of meat off her plate in the meantime.

“Alright.” Once Angela was finally done, Hana took both of their plates and cutlery, putting them in the dishwasher. “Let's go to your room and watch a movie.” Given that it was both more spacious and less cluttered with stuff, unless it was about video games, they'd tend to spend more of their time in Angela's room, it was simply more convenient. “I'm gonna pick something light and soft that I already know, so it's not gonna be a big deal if you fall asleep either.”

“Yes, that... sounds good.”

Making a brief detour to her room, Hana went through her anime collection for a few nice, fluffy feel-good movies, but before she'd picked even two for closer selection, Angela spoke up. “Hana, can we talk for a moment?”

“Um, sure.” Angela sounded kinda serious, so Hana placed the discs to the side, sitting onto her bed. “Am I in trouble or something?”

“Not at all. The opposite, if anything.” Hana pushed a few plushies to the side to clear some more space on her bed, gesturing at the free spot and with a weary sigh Angela sate beside her. “Hana, how do you... deal with it?”

“With what?” Even though she could make an educated guess.

“The failures. Innocents dying. The... killing.” Of course.

\---

“ _Freeze! Drop your weapon!” The masked grunt standing in front of the young woman who'd tried to hide in a corner once the shooting started slowly turns to face Mercy, her gun trained at him but trembling slightly. “Please. There's no need for anyone to get hurt. Step away from her.” The medic pleads, but instead with a contemptuous laugh he raises his rifle-_

_He can't even fully ready it, much less fire a shot, before Mercy does, accurately landing four shots pretty much right above his heart and the grunt collapses with a surprised sound, his weapon clattering to the floor as Angela shakily lowers hers._

_Only a moment later Hana – by this point of the battle without MEKA and bleeding as well – catches up with her, without question pulling the woman into a hug. “Are you okay?”_

“ _I'll be... fine.” After a few seconds Mercy pulls away with a steely expression, moving to help up the cowering girl. “Let's keep going.”_

\---

Hana had kind of been expecting this to come up sooner, but apparently yesterday Mercy had still been busy enough patching everyone up to keep her occupied. “I...” _don't._ “Not sure. This is gonna sound like a dumb cliché, but even good guys can't always win. But if we don't keep going, who's gonna be left? Talon? We just gotta make sure we're better next time.” So we can get some payback. But that probably wasn't what Angela would want to hear.

“That's so easy to say, but it doesn't change what's done. Nothing is going to bring any of these people back.”

“It's not.” Hana agreed. “But that's no reason to give up either.”

“Hana, please. If I would give up this easily, I hardly would have made it through university, much less lasted this long with Overwatch. But it doesn't change the fact that I killed a man with my own hands. Again.”

Angela's voice wavered, and without really thinking Hana leaned over to give her a soft hug. “That guy didn't leave you a choice, it was him or you. Also I was like half a second behind you, I would've gotten him anyways if you didn't.”

Angela didn't answer, but returned the hug, holding on to the girl as if for support – which certainly was a reversal –, so Hana continued. “And besides, you totally saved... Katie, was that her name?”

“Caitlyn.” Angela replied in a dull tone. “But for what?! For Talon to blow up the whole fucking building after they got what they wanted and kill her anyways?!” This was the first time Hana had heard Angela sincerely curse, and the sudden outburst made her flinch and pull away a little, and as soon as she realised, Angela's expression fell. “ _Verdammt_ , I'm sorry, Hana. I shouldn't get angry like this.”

“It's okay, you know.” Hana placed a comforting hand on Angela's leg. “You're allowed to get frustrated sometimes too. Especially after a mess like yesterday.”

“Yet you're just fine. How?”

“Good question.” Hana shrugged. “This is gonna sound kinda cold, but maybe I'm just better at not thinking about it. And instead living and getting better for the rematch.”

“'Rematch'?” Angela frowned. “Is all this just one big game for you?”

“What? No. I'll have you know I'm dead serious about all of this.”

After a brief pause Angela finally continued in a flat voice. “Eight.“

“Huh?”

“Including yesterday, I’ve killed eight human beings with my own hands.”

“Yeah, but how many people do you think you saved in your life?”

“So what?” Angela countered in a hollow tone. “I’ve told you one can’t weigh a human life against another. We’ll likely never even know their names. But every single one of these men and women were human beings with hopes and dreams and fears and ambitions just like us. ...Or are all the people you killed just numbers on a scoreboard to you?”

Which would put Hana at a 14-2 near-deaths so far. Part of her almost wished she could say yes, but… “No.” Even if it helped to try and think of it that way. “But you can’t take the whole blame for all of that either. You did your best to try and avoid it-”

“Then my best clearly wasn’t enough! I could have been-”

“Stop it.” Hana interrupted Angela, before continuing in a softer voice. “Please. Look I know it fucking sucks, all of this does, but we can’t always save everyone. Sometimes bad things just happen.” Hana moved closer to Angela to pull her into a close hug. “But that’s life. And we’re still only human. All we can do is give our all and make the choices we won’t reg- we can stand behind later.”

“I… you’re right, I suppose.” Angela let out a long sigh and seemed to relax at least a little. “But… even then, I… killed someone. Again.”

“Yeah.” Good shooting, too. “You did. I’m probably about to sound like an insensitive bitch, but you can’t keep beating yourself up over that. Look.” Hana let go of Angela, cupping the medic’s hands in her own. “You obviously didn’t want to shoot that guy. Any of these people. He-”

“And yet I did.” Angela interrupted her and Hana frowned.

“Hey. Let me finish. Then you can be mopey some more if you have to.” After a short moment Angela nodded with a faint smile and Hana continued. “You obviously didn’t want this, and even if you’re technically the cause, you can’t take the whole responsibility for what happened either.”

“Just like you that guy made a choice. He _chose_ to try and attack you instead of surrendering. He _chose_ to run with Talon to bully other people, knowing full well that they get into armed fights with Overwatch. Just like you chose to join and rejoin Overwatch. Just like you chose to try and save Caitlyn. And sometimes our choices and wishes clash, that’s just life.”

“...Yes, but did it have to end like this? Surely there would have been another way. Without bloodshed.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But sometimes things will only end when one side is dead or in pieces, no way around it.”

“But _why_ does it have to be that way? Why can’t we just...”

All live in peace and harmony? Dream on. “I don’t know.” Hana admitted. “But that’s just how things are. And sometimes those choices and wished were made way in advance, so at that point there’s just nothing you can do about it anymore.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? That me shooting that man was predetermined or something?”

“Not like that. If you ask me, there’s no fate but what we make. There is cause and effect, though. And maybe, the way things played out yesterday, by that point at least one person not making it out alive was inevitable.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better, how?” There was little sting in Angela’s voice, only fatigue.

“It’s… I know it sucks, but no matter how hard we try, we can’t always do right by everyone. This is reality, not some nice and tidy Hollywood movie.”

“I know _that_.” Angela frowned. “What’s your-”

“Then you gotta accept that sometimes shitty things like this just happen.”

“It’s not that easy, Hana. How aren’t you-”

“Are you afraid it’s getting easier?” Hana took a stab in the dark, but apparently she was right on the money, as Angela froze, continuing in a low voice after several seconds.

“...Yes. The first time I shot someone I was a complete wreck for days. I can still recall everything that happened that day crystal clear. But every time I… recovered a little faster, even without someone quite like you to cheer me up.”

“And because of that you think that if this goes on long enough you’ll turn into some sadistic killer slicing up people left, right and centre like a blood-splattered angel of death or something?” Okay, that was _really_ overly edgy, no to mention cliché. “No offence, but you really should be smart enough to realise that’s just dumb.” Angela seemed a bit taken aback by Hana’s bluntness, but before she could protest, the girl continued. “Yes you’ve gotten a bit better at dealing with it, but adaptation is a normal human reaction. Just like you’ve gotten used to healing people in combat or treating some really ugly injuries.”

“ _Yes._ That’s _exactly_ why-”

“But that’s it. That’s all there is. Look, we both know I can be an overly competitive, reckless gamer at times, so when I tell you it never gets easier you can bet your ass it doesn't. Yeah, I kinda got better at reacting and shooting, but that's just reflexes. When I stop and think about it, it's still just as bad.” Which was why Hana usually did her best not to. “And have you _looked_ at yourself, what you stand for and believe in? You're literally the least likely person on the planet to ever get used to killing.”

“Hana, that's...” Angela almost seemed swayed, so Hana added one more.

“And besides, the very fact that you're even worried about this shows that you're in no danger whatsoever. You trust me, right?” Hana reached for both of Angela's hands, clasping them together inside hers in front of her chest. “So just believe me. It's not your fault you had to shoot that guy, he forced your hand. You did your best to save as many as you could, no one is gonna blame you.” Except herself. “And you definitely don't have to worry about killing ever becoming easier for you. So please...”

Hana trailed off in a pleading tone, waiting for several seconds before Angela's unreadable expression finally turned into a smile and she broke Hana's grip to pull the girl into a soft hug instead. “I think I needed that right now.”

“You're always there for me too, it's about time I returned the favour for once.” Not to mention how seeing the one who would usually be her calm anchor this upset had been a little... unsettling to Hana.

“I suppose.” Angela's voice was little more than a whisper, her light laugh almost inaudible. But she finally seemed to relax a little. “ _Danke, Liebling_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, still here. In fact I managed to finish this upload on my birthday (depending on your time zone), so, go me, I guess? With huge thanks to my beta bruhxism once more.
> 
> Yay, more dialogue. A lot of dialogue. Go characterisation and backstory! That's really all I have to say on this one. That and the fact that of all things this is the place where I actually get some mileage out of the IT ethics lecture I had to take last semester. Featuring some slightly darker themes, but don't worry, the next one (which is already in beta as well) is gonna be nicer.
> 
> Also, all that stuff about feedback/criticism, thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed (I should just start copy-pasting one of these). See you in the next one.
> 
> Peace out


	9. Ritardando

“Angela, are you there?” Hana knocked on the door to the medic's room – only for it to swing open. _Huh?_ Had she forgotten to close it or something? But the lights were on, and she hadn't been in the med wing nor the mess hall, so odds were Angela was in her room right now, so Hana just entered, properly closing the door behind her.

“Angela?” ...No response. But the computer was running, showing some screensaver, and the desk was filled with papers and the ever-present cup of coffee. So she'd just been here. This wasn't going to turn into some silly missing person creepypasta or whatever, was it?

However when Hana looked around the room again, she noticed the faint sound of running water and a bit of light from under the bathroom door. ...That was a far simpler – if boring – explanation. Not like she was in any hurry, so Hana lounged on the couch to wait for Angela to finish her shower, turning on the TV to pass the time – only to turn it off a few minutes later once it became apparent there was nothing on other than some garbage and reruns, and the news only frustrated her more than anything, with all the crap going on in the world day to day.

Another few minutes later the bathroom finally opened. “Hey, Angela.” Hana got up and turned around, “Sorry for intruding like this, but your door wasn't shut properly-” – and froze.

Angela had indeed just finished her shower, as evidenced by her wet hair held in place by a small towel. And also evidenced by the fact that otherwise she was entirely naked save for a larger towel wrapped around her body, reaching down over her thighs, but barely above halfway covering her breasts, a few stray droplets of water rather enticingly trailing down her collarbone and cleavage... “Hana!” With a rather noticeable blush Angela covered her chest with one arm and her crotch with the other.

While the medic was still giving a great deer-in-the-headlights, Hana recovered from her surprise much faster, flashing her a sly grin. “Oh, hey. Looking good.”

“Th-this is... sorry.” Her blush only deepening at the comment, Angela rushed past Hana into her bedroom, closing the door, leaving the teen to contemplate what had just happened.

_Damn, she's hot like this._ And _that_ was inappropriate right now. Bad Hana. Save those thoughts for some other time, if you have to. Though it wasn't like she hadn't known this already either, but still, getting to see Angela like this... Seriously, not now.

Thankfully Angela's return precluded any more inappropriate thoughts, the medic now wearing a loose t-shirt and sweatpants, her hair in a simple ponytail. “I'm sorry about that.” She started, sitting on the couch next to Hana. “The bathroom is a little small to dry off properly, so I use the bedroom instead. But it appears I didn't lock the door properly, so...”

“Eh. No big deal.” Hana shrugged. “I probably shouldn't have just come in like that either. But actually I was here for you to take a look at my injuries.”

“I see.” Thankfully Angela seemed to have calmed down enough to not make the situation needlessly awkward. “How are you feeling?”

“Keeps getting better, I can move a bit more every day.” Even though for Hana's tastes she still wasn't healing nearly fast enough. “And besides,” she continued with a smirk, “that way I can repay you a bit for that 'view' you just gave me, if you know what I mean.”

“H-Hana,” And Angela was blushing again. “that is _highly_ inappropriate.” Score. Honestly, at times provoking this sort of entertaining reaction from Angela was so easy, even without her ...ulterior motive, Hana would probably keep teasing her just for the heck of it.

“Then does that mean you _don't_ find my find my cute, sexy body at least a little bit attractive?” Hana suspected that her attempt at a seductive voice fell kind of short, but Angela reacted just as well.

“I-I... That's... Hana, _stop it_.” However suddenly Mercy's voice was dead serious. “Normally I don't mind your... jokes, but not like this. To me the professional boundary between doctor and patient is sacrosanct. Working with Overwatch at all I'm already skirting close to violating that principle, so I do not need you adding to it like this. Do you get what I'm saying?”

_Oops_. “Sorry, I... didn't realise. Maybe that one _was_ a bit inappropriate. No more dumb jokes while you're treating me, I get it.”

“Thank you.” Angela got up, throwing over her labcoat. “Now come on, let's get your back looked at.”

“So...” Hana followed suit. “That means after we're done, I get to tease you all I want?”

Lightly shaking her head, but with a small smile, Angela closed the door behind her, leading the way to the medbay. “If you absolutely have to.”

* * *

“Hey, Angela!” Hana spotted Angela just as the medic was on her way back from the lab after calling it a day, motioning her over to her room. “Check out what I got from my parents.”

As Angela entered, the girl produced a flat angular bottle holding a clear reddish brown liquid from a large parcel labelled in Korean. “Here.”

“Amaretto?” Angela read the label.

“Yeah. After I got injured, Mum and Dad were kinda worried.” That was probably an understatement. “So they sent me a huge care package. A new game, some 'super-lasting' face paint, a bunch of sweets, you know. Stuff.”

“Including some ...liqueur, is that?”

“Yep. I love it. You should try some too. ...Hang on.” Hana paused, already in the process of rummaging through a drawer. “You're not gonna be all doctor mode 'alcohol is bad for you, you shouldn't drink', are you?”

“No.” Angela chuckled, shaking her head. In fact she usually had a bottle of something even stronger, rum for the most part, somewhere in her office; even if her 'I need a freaking drink' moments as reaction to a particularly gruelling injury – or exasperating patient stupidity – had become less and less over the years, she'd never been able to completely shake this vice. “In moderation it's fine. But at this time of the day?”

“In the afternoon?” Hana shrugged. “Were you still planning on driving anywhere today?”

“Well, no.”

“See? And it's just a little bit, don't be like that.”

“If you insist.” Angela acquiesced and Hana produced a pair of pink shot glasses resembling stylised skulls, filling them both and handing one to Angela. “Thank you.”

“Geonbae.”

“Prost.” The two touched glasses, Hana emptying half of hers in one go, while Angela only took a small sip at first, savouring the taste of the liqueur for a moment. It was only slightly sharp, a little sweet and had a very intense taste, with a strong note of almonds or marzipan.

Once Angela had leisurely finished her glass, Hana looked at her expectantly. “And..?”

“It's good.”

“'Great' you mean.” Hana grinned. “One more?”

Angela raised an eyebrow. “What was that about 'just a little' before?”

“Aw, you sound just like my mum.” Hana pouted. “'But don't overdo it, dear. And be sure to share with your friends.'” She said, rather accurately imitating the tone of a concerned mother.

“Hm, did you 'overdo' it with alcohol before?”

Hana smirked, tilting her head. “Did you?”

“Exactly twice.”

“Heh. So not even Mercy is immune to getting wasted sometimes.” Even though Angela had the technology to cure at least herself of drunkenness or a hangover within minutes, so in a way nowadays she was. “Good to know you're still human.”

Even though Hana was grinning, her voice carried an amount of genuine admiration ...along with something else Angela couldn't quite place. “Except when I was at university, there was no 'Mercy' yet, only kind of shy, bookish, younger than everyone else Angela.”

“So some of your friends took you out to get drunk? Come to think of it, you never really told any stories from that time, how come?”

After a brief pause Angela shrugged. “There is little interesting to tell. ...It was remarkably unremarkable, one could even say; I was very focused on studying so I'd finish as fast as possible, at the expense of free time and the usual wacky university student antics. ...Were you expecting another dramatic life-altering event during that time?” She added in an amused tone at Hana's vaguely disappointed expression.

“Well... something interesting at least. Seeing who you are now, all of that sounds so... normal.”

Angela chuckled. “I'm afraid I used up my allotment of tragic origin story years earlier.”

“Crap, sorry.” Hana's expression fell as realised what the woman was referring to. “I didn't mean it like that.”

“Don't worry about it,” Angela placated her. “It's long in the past.”

“But on the topic of stories,” She continued a moment later. “What about yours?”

“You've read my file, haven't you?”

So Angela had, once before D.Va had even been invited to Overwatch, and later more out of ...personal interest. But while a thorough – if short – CV, it didn't truly tell much of Hana's _personal_ story. “And you know of my biography, but that's not quite the same, is it?”

“Probably. But it's honestly remarkably unremarkable.” Hana echoed with a smirk. “I still have both parents; Mum is like the kindest and bestest person ever, and Dad still somehow beats me in Starcraft half the time. I got no siblings but a couple of good friends from school and gaming I'm staying in touch with. Seriously boring stuff. Yours is clearly the better superhero origin story.”

“I'm no superhero, Hana.” Angela protested, but the girl shook her head.

“You so are.” She returned in complete earnest. “Dedicating pretty much your life to helping others, just because that's what you believe in. You're a legit angel.”

Even if that was technically what she was doing, and she'd drawn that moniker several times before, Hana's compliment still made Angela blush. “Why, thank you, _Liebling_.” Even if Angela wasn't sure if she was deserving of this. “But if nothing else, I'm sure your story is more eventful already. At your age I wasn't even halfway done with university. You're already an international celebrity, fought against that massive Omnic several times, and now joined Overwatch.” Not to mention killed multiple people in combat, got to watch good friends of hers die, and almost died herself at least once.

“If you put it like that, I guess...” Hana shrugged. “But so have you and most others here. I just got an early start, that's all. You got to have a normal full-length childhood instead. ...Aw, crap, again, I didn't mean to-” Hana hurried to correct her faux-pas, but Angela quickly stopped her.

“It's alright. And besides, you're almost correct on this one. While it likely was never entirely the same, my aunt and uncle took me in after my parents died. They had no children of their own, but they cared for me just like actual parents would have, so my childhood was in fact relatively normal.”

“Huh. That's ...good, I guess?”

“Yes. ...You dodged the original question.” Angela added after short pause.

“Which would be..?” Hana's not entirely convincing innocent expression more or less spelt out that she was well aware of the question.

“If _you_ ever got seriously drunk, or 'wasted' as you put it, before.”

“Yeah, kinda. Just a couple times, though. I mean, a bunch of teenagers on a party, throw in a few old enough to buy alcohol, what do you think's gonna happen?”

“Fair point.” Even if with the number of ER patients related to all kinds of drunken idiocy Angela had had, she couldn't really approve of it, despite the fact that back then she hadn't always been better.

“But in my defence, I wasn't nearly as bad as some of the others.”

“Oh?”

“Like the chick who ended up running around down the street wearing absolutely nothing but a funny hat because someone dared her to. Or the guy who jumped like three metres out of a tree trying to grab on to a branch on the way down, and broke both his shins and a wrist instead.”

“Oh dear.” Angela shook her head and couldn't help but quote an old joke. “Famous last words: Hold my beer and watch this.”

Hana laughed. “Something like that. But I can say with certainty that _I_ always kept my clothes on while drunk, and never got injured either.”

“...But you still did a few embarrassing things, didn't you?” Angela guessed.

“You can't prove anything.” That was as good as a yes. Not that Angela hadn't of course; one time she'd gone into a very long, very angry rant about something completely inconsequential, much to the amusement of her – equally drunk – fellow students. “But that one time an even drunker... more drunk? whatever, guy tried to hit on me and apparently I was so not amused at that time I actually punched him and he fell straight off his chair and wound up cracking a rib. ...Didn't actually hold it against me the next morning, though.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah. He even admitted he could be a real ass when he's drunk.”

“Well, as long as he fully recovered.”

“He was back in training like the two days later. Nothing could keep him down.”

“'Could'? Did something happen?”

“Turned out a building-sized Omnic stepping on his MEKA and then chewing it a bit was enough to keep him down after all.” Hana let out an empty laugh. “And the nerve of that guy, to get himself killed after beating me in a game the day before and never let me have that rematch. Idiot.”

“Oh, I'm so sorry, _Liebes_.” Well that had certainly gone south quickly. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not really.” Hana shook her head. “Let the dead rest. ...Fuck, now I really want another.” She continued after a moment, pouring both glasses again without even asking and pushing one towards Angela, and the medic accepted.

“Here's to absent friends.” Ricky, Ana, Amélie, Gerard... far too many.

“To absent friends.” Hana echoed and they both emptied their glasses, falling silent for a good minute or so before Hana finally broke the silence. “Aw man, I completely killed the mood, didn't I?”

“So you did.” Angela lightly smiled, placing a hand on Hana's shoulder. “But don't worry about it.”

Taking Angela's hand and pulling her just enough to make the medic follow her, Hana dropped onto the edge of her bed with a long sigh. “Sorry for being such a downer.”

“It's alright, _Liebling._ ” Angela placed an arm around Hana's shoulder and the girl in turn moved a little closer. “Everyone is entitled to their grief.”

“Yeah, but...” Hana began before stopping herself, just leaning against Angela's shoulder instead. “Guess so.”

They just sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes before Hana spoke up. “Okay, that's enough with the mopey stuff. Wanna check out the game my parents sent me? I took a look at the back and it seems like something you could be interested in too.”

“Yes, let's do that.”

* * *

“Here, catch!” Hana accurately threw the ice cream sandwich she'd gotten from the store, and Angela easily caught it, peeling away the wrapper as Hana rejoined her side, already well into her own ice cream.

“Thank you.” Seeing as Angela was currently waiting for a synthesis for an experiment to finish, Hana had declared that they should make use of the nice weather – one of the first real warm days of spring this year – and go out into town. So now they were leisurely walking along the beach with no particular goal, just eating ice cream, chatting and enjoying the sun.

“Oh, right, I wanted to tell you.” Hana spoke up. “Guess which two Overwatch members became a couple recently?”

“Huh.” Angela raised an eyebrow. “It's not you, is it?” She asked in a slightly odd tone, but Hana shook her head.

“Nah.” _I wish._ “But it involves another almost as cool person.”

“I'm flattered you think of me that way, but I like to believe I would have been the first to notice.”

It took Hana a split second to process before she burst out laughing. “Hah! Good one. ...Okay, the _other_ almost as cool person.”

Angela briefly paused and Hana could practically see her go through all the new and returned members of Overwatch, before reaching the correct conclusion. “Lúcio?”

“Yep.”

“Aaand..?” Angela asked after a few seconds' silence, and Hana just grinned at her.

“Guess. I'm just gonna give you the hint that she was a member back before the fall too.”

“Unless you're being semantic about Fareeha, that currently only leaves one option, you know.” ...Huh, so it did. “Is it Mei.”

“Mm-h.” Too easy. “I kinda didn't see that coming either, but in retrospect it totally makes sense.”

“How so?”

“I mean, have you looked at the both of them?” Hana replied as if stating a blindly obvious truth. “They're some of the nicest, friendliest people ever, to everyone. They're like a perfect match.”

“If you put it that way, surely.” Angela nodded. “Well, I'm happy for the both of them.”

“Same here. And they're totally adorable together, check it out.” Taking out her phone, Hana brought up a few cute pictures of Lúcio and Mei sitting besides each other and cuddling or posing for the camera. “See?”

“So they are. ...Did you take that last one?” Angela asked, referring to the one picture that wasn't a selfie, as well as ostensibly taken in a completely different room and lighting.”

“Yeah. They totally deserve each other, right? Even if they can't keep their hands off each other for like five minutes.”

Angela chuckled. “Just give them a few weeks, they'll grow out of it eventually.”

“They better.” Hana pouted a little. “Because I will keep telling them to get a room every single time.”

“Speaking of.” She continued after a moment. “Do you have a boyfriend right now? Girlfriend. Whatever. Significant other.”

“Not right now. Not in the last few years, in fact.”

“Did something happen to the last one?” Hadn't Angela had enough tragic dramatic stuff happen to her already?

“No, no, nothing like that. We... broke up in mutual agreement after it became apparent that my work with Overwatch was putting too much strain on our relationship. A common enough issue even for ordinary doctors.”

“Aw, that sucks.” Even if not entirely without reason.

“But to be honest I haven't really been looking for a relationship since then.” Angela continued. “Or, actively not looking for time even.”

“So, _are_ you looking right now?” Hana kept prodding.

“That would depend.” Angela shrugged after thinking for a moment. “I wouldn't say I'd be averse to it, but I... don't know if I've found the right person at the moment.”

“Huh.” That was either a really good or a really bad sign and Hana masked her brief pause behind finishing the last bit of her ice cream, careful not let any hint of nervousness show. “And what kind of person would that be?”

“That's... a good question. Simply the... 'right' one, I'm not sure how I'd put it.”

As Angela paused to think. Hana hurried to pre-empt her. “Not like that. Much easier, a guy or a girl or either?”

“Oh, that. At least since university, or maybe always, I've been exclusively attracted to other girls.” Angela answered rather nonchalantly, kinda at odds how she'd react to some of Hana's – really still pretty harmless – teasing in the past.

_Fuck yeah!_ Hana could just barely stop herself from plain jumping and shouting. Her only two real concerns had been solved just like that, now she only had to go for it. Why not right here and now? The thought popped into Hana's mind, but she just as quickly discarded it again; on some random bit of beach, some random time in the afternoon wasn't nearly stylish enough. She had the luxury of preparation, so was gonna come up with some- Actually...

“What's so funny.” Angela asked, Hana's poker face apparently not as good as she'd thought.

“Nothing, I just got a neat idea for my stream this evening. You should totally come and watch, I'm gonna be playing this one puzzle game I showed you yesterday. If you come into chat I'll make you a mod too.”

“I'll try, but I can't make any promises, I need to finish my synthesis this evening.”

“Aw.” Hana pouted. “You don't even have to deal with chat or anything, Lúcio is a pretty great mod, but you should at least listen on the side.”

“At this point most of the reactions only involve stirring every few minutes and making sure nothing unforeseen happens, so I should be able to do that much.”

“'Unforeseen'? Like what? Explosions, acid clouds, wormholes, the experiment suddenly attaining sentience?” Hana asked with a grin, fully aware that reality wouldn't be nearly as spectacular.

“You've watched far too many Hollywood movies, dear.” Angela laughed. “The worst that could happen is the mixture catching fire or some secondary product building up and ruining the whole reaction.”

“Sounds kinda boring. Good that I'll be there to entertain you. Well, not _there_ there, but you know what I mean.”

“I suppose. Thankfully most of the chemistry I'm dealing with is mostly on the tame side, what you call 'boring' I call 'safe'.”

“I know, I know.” That one time Hana had actually seen some kind of chemical burns first-hand, and she'd rather not repeat the experience. “Colourful explosions are still cool, though.”

“I'm afraid there's little overlap between pharmacy and pyrotechnics; or 'parlour tricks' as a professor of mine liked to put it. And I suppose she was kind of right in that a surprising number of important chemicals _are_ clear liquids or odourless white powders.”

“So no bubbling green flasks of acid either.”

“I'm afraid not. Video games may have lied to you there.”

Hana shrugged. “Guess so.” Not that was much of a surprise, but it never hurt to ask.

“If you want I can show you some real acids and the like I have in my lab once we get back.” Angela offered and after a brief consideration Hana nodded.

“Sure, if we have time. I still need to set up my stream and all.” Not to mention talk with Lúcio about her plan.

“Of course. ...And another thing,” Angela continued. “You asked me all about my relationships. ...What about yours?”

No way. Okay, it could simply be curiosity, of course, but the timing... “Same here, none right now. Like two ever; a boy and a girl, but no idea how much they count. Neither lasted very long, and I guess we were still teenagers figuring ourselves out.”

“ _Interessant._ And what did you figure out?”

“That I'm not into those excessively cutesy girly girls, nor effeminate wimpy guys.”

“And instead?”

“I dunno.” By now it was relatively clear what Angela meant, but Hana didn't catch it on purpose. “Someone who can keep up with me. I guess.”

“No, I meant-” Angela let out a slightly impatient sigh. “...a boy or a girl?”

Okay, there was no way this was still coincidence. So what the heck was she still waiting for? But despite how determined and forward she like to think herself to be, part of Hana was still gripped with insecurity and nervousness, stopping her from confessing to Angela on the spot. “Beats me, maybe both. Probably girls.” Most definitely one specific woman. “A buddy in MEKA once told me what he said was the easiest way to be sure.”

“Oh?” Angela raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Pretty simple. What kind of porn do you get off to?” Hana grinned as Angela made an indistinct noise and almost missed a step in reaction to her bluntness. “Which would put me square into 'girls only', by the way.” And, occasionally, a few things less likely found outside the realm of fiction, if she was feeling frisky; but while Angela's reaction to the finer points of that would probably have been priceless, at the same time this most likely wasn't something D.Va should be overheard discussing in public.

“I... see.” Angela answered with a pointedly neutral expression

“So... what kind of stuff do you watch, then?” Hana couldn't resist prodding after a moment. “Does the good doctor have any secret kinks she'd rather not anyone else know about?”

“H-Hana, that's-” Angela immediately blushed, taking a few moments to compose herself. “This isn't- As I said, I'm 'into' other women only. And I'd really rather not discuss this in public.” Even though Hana was pretty sure there was no one in earshot right now, and only a handful people in sight, despite the nice weather. Probably owing to it being the early afternoon in the middle of the week; one of the perks the irregular hours working with Overwatch brought with them.

“Fair point.” Hana shrugged as she turned into a street to make their way towards the arcade. “But I may get back to that in private, then.”

“Please don't.”

* * *

“Gg.” D.Va giggled. “Well fought.” Even if the match had been clearly one-sided by the halfway point, the other team had made hers work for every single point. “Both you guys and my team.” After reading chat for a bit she continued. “This is all we have time for today, but at least we got to finish on a beautiful game.” Not like the one before where one guy was camping so hard he pretty much pitched a tent and another played the very worst of the meta in what was supposed to be a friendly game. “Can I get some gg bunnies in the chat for everyone who just played.” As the chat briefly flooded with emotes Hana took a deep breath, going over her words one more time.

“And before we end things off for today, I just wanna say- ...dedicate this stream to one very special person. We've only known for like half a year, but they've been been there for me all that time and are truly precious to me.” Hana made a heart with her hands and winked at the camera. “You know who you are.” Hopefully.

As they'd planned, before chat really had time to react, Lúcio took over, cutting D.Va's feed and hosting a colleague and occasional rival instead as Hana sunk back into her chair, letting out a long breath. Her phone was already non-stop vibrating from social media notifications, so Hana just turned it off, she'd deal with the fallout tomorrow. After she had an answer.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised this one a bit more lighthearted (save for that one sombre moment; that one also featuring a callback to the very start of the very first chapter), featuring what I think counts as mild fanservice (at least if you have an active imagination), both this and the previous chapter serving simply to show some more moments between the two and set up the next one. This and the one before actually started out as one mammoth chapter, but I wound up splitting them, both for thematic/mood reasons and length (both as one likely would literally have been over 9000 words). Anachronistic order strikes again (kind of), the four bits in this chapter are in order, but the first two may have happened somewhere before/between the parts of chapter 8 (it's intentionally left a little ambiguous; I don't know for certain either).
> 
> Blame the Lúcio/Mei paring (whose only real point it was to give Hana a good segue) on my brother; he made pretty much the same point as Hana, and I'd say he's not wrong either. That bit of banter about chemistry is mostly factual as well. Not sure about pharmacy specifically, but in my biochemistry class, a few reactions where just as boring and wait-y (except more so, because you didn't even have to supervise, just stick it in the oven for 8+ hours and hope you get something useful); and the typical technicolour science is mostly relegated to TV, pyrotechnics and some analytics.
> 
> Not much else to say other than thanks to my beta bruhxism. And the usual stuff of thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed, yadda-yadda feedback/criticism, until next time.
> 
> Peace out


End file.
